83 NEWER PLIOCENE PERIOD, [Ch. VII. 



enter into the structure of the great cone, will be seen dipping 

 at a much more rapid angle. 



The lavas and tuffs, which have conformed to the sides of 

 Etna, dip at angles of from fifteen to twenty-five degrees, while 

 the slope of the lateral cones is from thirty-five to fifty degrees. 

 Now, wherever we meet with sections of these buried cones in 

 the precipices bordering the Val del Bove, (and they are fre- 

 quent in the cliffs called the Serre del Solfizio, and in those 

 near the head of the valley not far from the rock of M usara,) 

 we find the beds dipping at high angles and inclined in various 

 directions*. 



Scenery of tlic Val del Bove. Without entering at present 

 into any further discussions respecting the origin of the Val del 

 Bove, we shall proceed to describe some of its most remarkable 

 features. Let the reader picture to himself a large amphi- 

 theatre, five miles in diameter, and surrounded on three sides 

 by precipices from two thousand to three thousand feet in 

 height. If he has beheld that most picturesque scene in the 

 chain of the Pyrenees, the celebrated e cirque of Gavarnie,' 

 he may form some conception of the magnificent circle of pre- 

 cipitous rocks which inclose, on three sides, the great plain 

 of the Val del Bove. This plain has been deluged by re- 

 peated streams of lava, and although it appears almost level 

 when viewed from a distance, it is, in fact, more uneven 

 than the surface of the most tempestuous sea. Besides the 

 minor irregularities of the lava, the valley is in one part inter- 

 rupted by a ridge of rocks, two of which, Musara and Capra, 

 are very prominent. It can hardly be said that they 



' like giants stand 



To sentinel enchanted land ;' 



for although, like the Trosachs, they are of gigantic dimen- 



''' I perceive that Professor Hoffmann, who visited the Val del Bove after me 

 (in January, 1831 } , lias speculated on its structure as corresponding to that of the 

 SO- called elevation craters, which hypothesis would require that there should he a 

 quaqua- versal dip, such as I have above alluded to. I can only account for this 

 difference of opinion, by supposing the Professor to have overlooked the pheno- 

 mena of the buried cones. Arclu'v fiir Miueralo^ie, c. Uerlin. 1831. 



