78 KAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



ages to our own day, numerous and rich cultiva- 

 tors have occupied this district. And here on this 

 narrow space there are grouped together sixty-five 

 townships or villages, which contain a population of 

 about 300,000.* The second zone is the woody re- 

 gion il bosco, regione silvosa-, it owes its name 

 to the thick forests with which it was formerly 

 covered, and which still, at different points, give 

 shade and shelter to this part of Etna. This woody 

 region comprises the lateral declivities and a great 

 portion of the central elevation of the mountain. 

 From this region to the summit, there lies a third 

 zone, which is known under the name of the desert 

 region regione deserta, regione netta, and is in 

 reality nothing more than a vast wilderness, where 

 there is an incessant contest between the fire which 

 smoulders beneath the rocks of the mountain, and 

 the snow which during nearly the whole year covers 

 the summit and declivities. f 



More than 200 conical eminences, varying in 

 height, but generally of a very regular form, and 

 hollowed in their interior into a sort of funnel-like 

 cavity, are scattered from the extreme limits of 



* G. Gemellaro. 



f This contrast strikes all those who visit Etna, and it has 

 furnished poets with several antitheses, which on this occasion at all 

 events express the truth. 



" Scit niuibus servare fidem, pariterque favillis" 



CLAUDIAN. 



Summo canajugo cohilet, mirabile dictu, 

 Vietnam flammis glaciem, aternoque rigore 

 Ar denies horrent scopuli. 



SILIUS ITALICUS. 



