THE COASTS OF SICILY. 87 



exposed lava, and here began our fatigues. The 

 sirocco was blowing, and even at Doctor Gemellaro's 

 house the thermometer had stood at 104 F. in the 

 shade. Scorched at once by the direct rays of the 

 sun and by the reflection of these masses of stone, 

 we endeavoured to hasten the tardy pace of our 

 mules, that we might the sooner reach the icoody 

 region, whose sombre verdure seemed to promise 

 from a distance both shade and coolness. Our dis- 

 appointment was, however, great, when on reaching 

 this much desired goal we found only a carpet of 

 ferns, interspersed here and there with a few ancient 

 trunks of branchless oaks. 



The southern side of Etna presents everywhere 

 the same spectacle. 1 In this vast space, which was 

 formerly covered with primeval forests, there remains 

 at the present day scarcely a single tree that has not 

 suffered from the axe or fire. A lawsuit, which has 

 been pending for fifteen years between the Prince of 

 Palermo and the other proprietors, has occasioned all 

 this devastation, for since the beginning of this 

 unfortunate process no watch has been kept over 

 the forest. The mountaineers, profiting by the op- 

 portunity thus thrown in their way, have hacked the 

 trees, or set fire to their roots, in order that they 

 might fall into their hands as dead wood, and owing 

 to this avaricious improvidence, the forest has very 

 nearly disappeared. 



"We continued to ascend beneath the rays of a 

 burning sun. The path, becoming more and more 

 steep, passed along a loose soil which was almost 

 entirely formed of decomposed lava, and either from 



G 4 



