344 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



now cylinders of scoriaceous lava. After a couple 

 of hours we got above the clouds, when about eight 

 thousand feet high, but not till my hands were 

 numbed, for I could not believe for a long time in 

 the necessity of my putting on a cloak. After 

 reaching this place, I set out out with Angelo for 

 the top of Etna, leaving Guiseppe to cook. We 

 had now and then a drifting cloud, but on the whole 

 splendid sunshine. I saw the spot at the foot of 

 the great line where the Catanians quarried ice 

 from under a current of lava. My guide saw the 

 same thing some six years ago, while the eruption 

 of 1852 was in progress, in August and September : 

 the sand and lava ten feet thick, and four feet of 

 ice below, and bottom not seen. Not far above the 

 ice I warmed my hands at a fumarole where the 

 steam and some sulphuretted hydrogen were given 

 off at such a heat that I was obliged to be careful 

 how I put my fingers in. This welcome heat 

 enabled me to write. When we reached the edge 

 of the crater the whole of Sicily was hidden except 

 the higher part of Etna, between us and Monta- 

 gunoli. But Lipari and Stromboli stood out in the 

 sea very conspicuously. I made a rough sketch of 

 the two craters ; the smaller one has lately, I believe, 

 fallen, and shows a section of some of the hori- 

 zontal beds of lava, with which it had been filled 

 nearly to the top. It was a considerable exertion 

 climbing and going half round it after a seven 

 hours' ride, and this makes the Casa Inglese, which 

 is the roughest place I was ever in, seem a hospitable 



