THE BIRTH OF A SICILIAN VOLCANO. 585 



photograph here reproduced. The stream ceased flowing when 

 within three hundred and seventy yards of the building nearest 

 the volcano. 



It was interesting to observe that the stream did not actually 

 plow up the loose volcanic earth of the vineyards, but simply 

 rolled or flowed over the surface without throwing up the soil. 

 The angle of the sides of the stream is steep and the sides are 

 rough, like frozen foam or congealed slag from a furnace. 



The same afternoon we returned to Catania, visited the uni- 

 versity, and the next day found us on our way to Taormina, 

 catching from the window of our car fine views of Mount Etna. 

 The accompanying picture will give a faint idea of the wondrously 

 fine view of the volcano as seen from the walls of the interesting 

 ruins of the Greek-Roman theater at Taormina, as well as the 

 town itself, and the flanks of Etna studded with villages and ham- 

 lets. It is a view said to be the finest in all Europe, and the claim 

 we will not dispute. Certainly a more magnificent outlook, com- 

 bining the attractions of a land with a history so rich and varied, 

 of so majestic a volcano, of so fair a sky, and of a sea so beautiful 

 as on that bright sunny April day, never met our gaze. 



And then the view of Etna at sunset, from the terrace of the 

 Hotel Timeo, and again when its cone was lit up by the rising 

 sun, were memorable scenes. The volcano was also kind enough to 

 flame up at night, the light of the glowing but subdued volcanic 

 fires at the bottom of the crater being reflected in the darkness 

 upon the clouds of steam hovering above. 



The fires of Etna have subsided, only to be succeeded in that 

 beautiful island by a far more terrible social upheaval ; the bur- 

 den of agrarian wrongs, inflicted by the wealthy landholders, and 

 of the too heavy taxes causing a sudden and widespread volcanic 

 uprising on the part of the downtrodden peasants. Let us hope 

 that by timely concessions and patient readjustments of the rela- 

 tion between landlords and tenants a calm as serene and perva- 

 sive as to outward appearance at least reigned over the fair island 

 a few years ago, may speedily return. 



The Rev. Lorimer Fison explained the classificatory system of relationship to 

 the British Association by an examination of the descendants of two brothers and 

 two sisters to the third generation. The Fuegian terms of relationship were 

 taken in the first place as an example of the system. These divide the sexes in 

 any one generation into groups of non-marriageable persons and other groups of 

 marriageable persons. Next, the same relations and their descendants in an Aus- 

 tralian tribe were taken, when precisely the same groups appeared as the result 

 of the division of the community into two exogamous intermarrying divisions. 

 It was inferred that wherever the classifactory terms appeared these divisions 

 had existed in the past. 



VOL. XLTI. 42 



