$352 By. Baubeny on the Geology of Sicily. 
Amongst the other rocks on the same coast, that of Cas- 
tello d’Aci would appear to be submarine, or at least, of 
subaqueous origin. It consists of a volcanic breccia, the ce- 
eae substance of a sandy nature ; the nodules a ‘cellular 
kind of lava. The nodules, however, are not rounded mass- 
es, “Ay result from a sort of irregular cystallization, most of 
them possessing a radiated repre so that they resemble a 
clusture of prisms meetin mon centre. The above 
stellular arrangement is t : Ser anaes canta: but in other cases 
prisms have more of a fan-shaped structure ; and in both © 
instances, the point towards which they converge, as well a 
the interstices between them, consists of tuff. ne 
t bine} probable, indeed, from many circumstances, tha 
ruptions of mount Etna commenced at an era not only | 
apieced ent tothe time of Homer, but even perhaps to the A 
commencement of the present order of things. If the exist- 
ence of pebbles and other rolled masses, establish the opera- 
tion of a deluge, we have, in the gravel at the foot of Etna, 
abundant evidence of antediluvian ¢ eruptions, for both cellular 
and compact lavas are found among these deposits. Nor 
would it be difficult to point out, on the slope of Etna, espe- 
cially. on its hoeitae: side, valleys which, from their size and 
oe rable rather to diluvial action, than to the 
the erase beds of lava at Aci Reale, to which Mr. Bry- 
- done Pests ers in his entertaining Travels in Sicily,* where he 
Strout 
% The following is the pee to which I refer. F 
“Near toa vault, which is now thirty feet below ground, and has 
Ibably been a burial place, there is a draw- well, where there are 
several strata of Javas, with earth to = Branson i thickness over the 
surface of each stratum. Recupero made of this as an argu- 
mient to prove the great antiquity ae diet eruptions of this mountain. 
to form but a scan’ 
seil on the surface ofa lava, there must have been more than that space 
of time betwixt cach of the epinuaioas which have formed these strata. 
But what shall we say of a wih they a near to ae of a er t de nee 
