4*4 Obfervations on Pumice Stone, 



Sicilians. Of thefe iflands we (lioiild have known little 

 " more than what has been told us in the fables of the poe'.s, 

 had they not been vifited, in the year 1781, by Dolomieu, 

 who publiflied a mineralogical defcription of them * j for 

 all other travellers who have given accounts of Sicilv fay 

 iiothing of them, partly becaufe thev followed the common 

 routine, and wifhed to fee only fuch objects as had been 

 feen by others — and partly becaufe thefe*iflands lie in a tcm- 

 peftuous fe.T, where to the danger of {liipwreck is added that 

 of being taken by the Earbary cruifers, who hover about irj 

 ihat neighbourhood during the whole fummer. Tra\^!lers, 

 however, who wifli to fee more than antiquities, and who 

 are defirous to examine and defcribe more than things al- 

 ready known, may here cxpeft a rich harveft, if they are 

 accuftomed to make obfervations in reeard to natural hif- 

 lory : for objefts worthy of their notice cannot be want- 

 ing in iflands where volcanoes of every kind exili, fonxe 

 continually burning, and fome which, like JEina. and Ve- 

 fuvius, arc fometimes at reft, and fonietimcs in a ftate of 

 violent eruption ; where there are others totally extinft ; 

 and befides thefe, lava of all kinds, and in each degree of 

 calcination, vitrification, and efiiorefcence f. 



The Lipari iflands, the Injulce- JEolia: or Vulcanic of 

 the ancients, lie between Italy and Sicily, but nearer to 

 Sicily, from the coaft of which the neareft is diftant about 

 thirty Italian miles. Dolomieu makes the number of them 

 to be ten; others fay there are eleven. The largefl, which 

 is the mod fertile and bed peopled, is called Lipari. It is 

 eighteen Italian miles in circumference, and contains a 



* See his Voyage tp the Lipavine iflands. Compare alfo K'^SS' ^Jl^ 

 due Ski lie e in alcur.e parti dcW Ajennino, d(dV Abbate ^as^Spqllanzani. 

 •Pavia, 1793, 8vo, toiji. ii. 



f In regard to the piecifc fimation of thefe iflands, fee HciT,an"s map : 

 Slcilia,Sardi}:ia,CorJica,Malla, 1761, confin-flxd by Zanr.oni. On the* 

 ^he fhrec-fheet map publi^ied by Ldler in 1770, under ihf; title of Nlcr 

 MLdilerrunec, the ifland of UJlika is entirely omiited. 



