330 Defcription ef ' .Etna. [Book VI. 



ther. Here we obferve a gulph which threw out tor- 

 rents of fire, now covered with the mod luxurious 

 verdure. Delicious fruits arifing from what was but 

 lately a black and barren rock. Delightful flowers 

 Covering the earth, the furface of which is but a few 

 yards removed from lakes cf liquid fire and brimftone. 

 An immenfe gulph of fire for ever exifling in the 

 midft of fnows which it has not the power to melt^ 

 and immenfe fields of fnow and ice unceafingly fur- 

 rounding this gulph of fire; which they have not the 

 power to extinguifh. 



The woody region of ^tna afcends for about eight 

 or nine miles, and forms a zone of the brighteft green 

 around the mountain. In this region, near the Sps- 

 lonca del Capriole, or goats cavern, are two of the in oft 

 beautiful mountains that adorn the fides of /Etna. 

 Their hollow craters are each of them confidcribiy 

 larger than that of Vcfuvius. They are now filled 

 with ftately oaks, and covered with the richeft foil to 

 a great depth. A mountain at fome diftance, which 

 was formed by an eruption in 1766, was, in 1770, ft ill 

 on fire ; nor was the lava by any means cold. This 

 region of ./Etna, like the Regicxe Culta, is compofed of 

 lava ; but this is now covered with fo deep a layer of 

 earth, that it is no where to be feen, except, in the 

 beds of the torrents, in many of which it is worn down 

 by the water to the depth of fifty or fixty feet, and in 

 one of them confiderably more. On approaching La 

 Regisne S coper t a, the trees begin to afliirr.e a wintry 

 appearance, and every cbjeft indicates the proximity 

 of barrennefs and eternal froil. 



On completely bidding adieu to the vegetable re- 

 gions, an expanfe of ice prefents itfelf, which is fuffi- 

 cient to dagger the moft determined refolution. Above 

 thefe the high fummit of the mountain rears its tre- 

 mendous 



