376 Professor Hoffmann on Mont Etna. 



occupied upwards of two months of the time allotted to us in 

 Sicily. But I hope that this time has not been unprofitably 

 employed, and I flatter myself that even now, we have arrived 

 at results, the full importance of which will only be developed 

 by future inquiries. No sooner had we recovered from the first 

 impression of astonishment excited by the magnificent phenomena 

 before us, than we applied ourselves to the investigation of the 

 basalts which form a circus surrounding the mountain in a sort of 

 semicircular amphitheatre; for these basalts have always attracted 

 the attention of observers, and they have been carefully distin- 

 guished from the modern lavas which cover the sides of the 

 mountain. If I mistake not, M. Von Buch himself, in his ge- 

 neral sketch of volcanoes, has directed our attention to them in 

 an especial manner. But we were quite disappointed in our 

 expectations, when we saw that these basaltic masses, were very 

 inconsiderable, isolated and quite unconnected with one another 

 or with the general physiognomy of the surface. This disap- 

 pointment in their magnitude and extent was hardly indemnified 

 by the interesting observation of numerous basaltic dikes which 

 proceeded upwards from this principal mass into the chalk of 

 the Cyclopean islands. 



You may easily imagine what was our satisfaction when we 

 found unexpectedly, in another part of the mountain, what am- 

 ply repaid us for our disappointment at the sight of these ba- 

 salts. During our earlier journeys, mention was made to us of 

 a deep and spacious valley, the upper part of which was on its 

 eastern side, and which went by the name of the Valle del Bove. 

 It was said to be quite separate from the summit, and many 

 travellers agreed in their accounts of its magnificence. Very 

 few, however, had ever reached its interior, which lay remote 

 from the ordinary routes, and was not very easy of access. These 

 accounts naturally excited our curiosity, for the great cone of 

 Etna is quite destitute of valleys of any consequence in its upper 

 regions. We resolved, therefore, on visiting it, and were amply 

 repaid for our trouble ; for, instead of the lavas which we had 

 every where met with on the sides of this valley, there were 

 the most evident proofs of the existence of numerous varieties 

 of trachytic rocks. Its principal mass is formed of horizontal 

 coarse beds, alternating with slaggy conglomerates ; another por- 



