Mr Steffen’s Description of a Sitometer. 269 
3d day. From Baehyno visit the rocks of Cape Passero, and then proceed to 
Noto. 
4, Palazzolo. Antiquities of Acra. 
From thence the usual route is to Syracuse ; but I should recommend the 
following deviation, in order to obtain a full view of the volcanic rocks 
of the Val de Noto. 
5th day. To Vizzini. 
6. To Palagonia. Lago Naftia. 
7. Lentini ; sleeping at Carlentini to avoid the exhalations from the lake. 
8. Sortino. Grottos of Pantalica, 
9. Syracuse. 
10. Catania. 
11. Giardini. Ruins of Tauromenium. 
12. Messina. 
If it be wished to make the tour of Mount Etna, the route would be, 
1st day. Aderno. 
2. Randazzo. 
3. Giardini. 
4. Catania. 
With respect to the inns, those at Messina, Palermo, Catania, and Syra- 
cuse may be considered pretty good. At Cefalu, Termini, Girgenti, 
Terranova, Giardini, tolerable. Nearly all the rest execrable, affording 
scarcely any thing else than a shelter from the elements. 
Art. VIII . — Description of a Sitometer , or Instrument for 
measuring Grain. By Henry Steffen, Esq. Balmader. 
With a Plate. 
I T must appear evident to every one, who has paid any atten- 
tion to the business, that the mode adopted by farmers and com 
merchants, for marking the quantities of grain which they lay up 
in their granaries, or put on ship-board, is very clumsy, and lia- 
ble to mistakes. The former class of men, when they have oc- 
casion to store their granaries, to suit their idea of prices, make 
use of a stick called a “ nick-stick ,” in which they cut a notch 
with a knife, or make a stroke with a piece of chalk upon the 
wall or fanners, for every half boll that is carried up the granary 
stair ; and the latter employ pieces of lead, such as the bobbins 
which are attached to the mats of flax, which are imported from 
Russia, or round bits of leather, with a hole through them, like, 
perhaps, the coin of this country, in the rude ages. One of 
these, called 64 tallies ,” is given by the men who measure the 
corn in the granary, to the porters who carry it on their back 
in a bag, or to the carters who take their cart-loads from the 
VOL. XIII. NO. £6. OCTOBER 1825. 
T 
