AN ETNEAN LANDSCAPE. 591 



the landscapes wear a grander aspect. Mr. Matthew Arnold Las 

 painted an Etnean picture with marvellous force in the following 

 beautiful passage.* 



" Tis the last 



Of all the woody, high, well watered dells 

 On Etna ; and the beam 

 Of noon is broken there by chestnut boughs 

 Down its steep verdant sides ; the air 

 Is freshened by the leaping stream, which throws 

 Eternal showers of spray on the mossed roots 

 Of trees, and vines of turf, and long dark shoots 

 Of ivy-plants, and fragrant hanging bells 

 Of hyacinths, and on late anemones, 

 That muffle its wet banks ; but glade, 

 And stream, and sward, and chestnut trees, 

 End here ; Etna beyond, in the broad glare 

 Of the hot noon, without a shade, 

 Slope behind slope, up to the peak, lies bare ; 

 The peak, round which the white clouds play." 

 



Between France and Spain lies the great system of the Pyrenees, 

 whose topmost peaks exceed 11,000 feet in altitude. Their entire 

 breadth averages between forty and fifty miles ; the southern slope is 

 exceedingly rugged and abrupt, and the passes or defiles exhibit a 

 character of exceeding savageness. The two loftiest crests are Mount 

 Maladetta, 11,426 feet, and Mont Perdu, 11,275 feet. The interior 

 of Spain consists of an elevated table-land, bordered by the wild 

 mountain-ranges of the Sierra Nevada and the Sierra Morena. The 

 average height of the snowy chain of the Nevada is 6000 feet, but 

 the Peak of Mulharen soars to the noble elevation of 11,678 feet. 



In France, we meet with the chains of the Cevennes and the 

 Vosges, the former extending along the right bank of the Rhone, with 

 an average altitude of 3000 feet ; the latter stretching from north to 

 south along the right bank of the Rhine. The vine-clad slopes of the 

 latter offer many a romantic picture to the wayfarer in Rhineland. 

 Very curious in geological interest are the extinct volcanic mountains 

 of Auvergne ; so black, charred, scathed, and desolate, that one might 

 * Matthew Arnold, " New Poems" (1867) Evipedocles on Etna. 



