GEOLOGY. 641 



convulsions of the volcano, go back beyond historic 

 epochs. 



It was on the loftiest of these rocks that the frightful 

 Polyphemus, having combed himself with a rake, delighted 

 to play upon the flute in order to charm Galatea, the fairest 

 of the Nei'eids. It was with the highest rock that the 

 furious Cyclops crushed Acis, his favoured rival. The 

 others he launched at the vessels of the companions of 

 Ulysses wlien they escaped him. Farther on we see the 

 little port where Homer makes the fleet of the King of 

 Ithaca touch. All here is imprinted with poesy. 



When we look down on the flanks of the giant we behold 

 his frightful progeny, a perfect pleiades of thirty-five to 

 forty little volcanoes. From this point their craters show 

 like so many circular lips, broad and depressed or pointed 

 and projecting, and crowning sugar-loaf cones. Seen 

 thus in a bird's-eye view, all these volcanoes exactly re- 

 semble those of the moon, and it seems as if we had before 

 our eyes a magnified section of our satellite. I don't 

 know whether this comparison has ever been made ; it is, 

 however, strictly correct. The ascent of Etna might be 

 useful in this respect to many astronomers. 



To this splendid picture of vales and mountains un- 

 rolling themselves before the eye, and melting away in 

 the mists of the horizon, are sometimes joined remarkable 

 phenomena. There are some elevated peaks where, if a 

 person places himself on a projecting eminence at sunrise, 

 his outline is traced on the distant clouds in singular and 

 gigantic proportions. This can often be seen on the sum- 

 mit of the Brocken, one of the loftiest mountains of the 

 Harz, and it is this curious phenomenon that is known by 

 the name of the Spectres of the Brocken. 



But during journeys among mountains, the enchanting 



