346 DOMAIN XII. VOLCANIC. 



which they had a clear and undisturbed view of 

 the internal parts of that immense gulf. After 

 my return to Catania, the Chevalier Gioeni like- 

 wise declared to me that in his different excur- 

 sions to that mountain he had never had a good 

 fortune similar to mine; and that a month be- 

 fore my arrival he had made a journey to Etna 

 with the Chevalier Dangios, furnished with the 

 necessary instruments to ascertain accurately 

 the height of the mountain; but when they had 

 arrived at the foot of the cone, where they had 

 proposed to begin their operations, they were 

 obliged to return back, from the obstacles they 

 met with, which, to say the truth, are commonly 

 neither few nor small. 



" Etna rises to a prodigious height above the 

 level of the sea, and its summit is usually co- 

 vered with snows and ice, and obscured with 

 clouds, except when the latter are low, and 

 range along the sides. The winds likewise fre- 

 quently blow with such violence, that persons 

 can scarcely keep their feet, not to mention the 

 acute cold which benumbs the limbs. But the 

 most formidable impediments to the progress of 

 the adventurers who attempt this perilous jour- 

 ney, are the streams of sulphureous vapour which 

 rise on the sides, and the thick clouds of sul- 

 phureous smoke which burst forth from the 



