NOTES ON A TRIP TO THE LI PARI ISLANDS IN 1889 . 
(With Plate L) 
By WM. H. HOBBS. 
The Lipari or iEolian group of islands are all of volcanic origin and 
lie in the Mediterranean Sea between thirty and forty miles northwest 
of the Straits of Messina. There are seven large islands and ten islets, 
all of which received various names by the ancients. The Greeks made 
them the abode of iEolus, the god of the winds, and Volcano or Vulcano, 
one of the two active volcanic vents, was supposed to be the forge of 
Vulcan. 
Lipari, near the center of the group, has figured prominently in his¬ 
tory. Plundered by the Athenians and later by the Carthaginians, it 
was the scene in B. C. 260 of the capture of the Roman general, Cnseus 
Cornelius Scipio, by the Carthaginians. Eruptions of Volcano must 
have taken place in B. C. 204 and 126. In the middle ages and later the 
government changed hands frequently. 
With the exception of Lipari and Salina near the center of the group, 
the islands are at present but little inhabited. Volcano, the southern¬ 
most, which till recently contained vineyards and important chemical 
industries depending on the emanations of the torpid volcano, has been 
entirely deserted since the outbreak of 1888 and 1889. Yet amid all this 
desolation is to be found some of the most romantic scenery in Italy. 
Lipari, the largest and most productive of the islands, has an area of ten 
to eleven square miles. On the east side of the island in a natural 
amphitheatre is the town of the same name, the walls of the amphithe¬ 
atre being formed by the now extinct volcanoes; Monte Rosa, Monte 
Sant’ Angelo and Monte della Guardia. Monte Sant’ Angelo, the high¬ 
est point (1952 feet), rises in the center of the island on the west of the 
town. Monte Rosa extends into the sea as a rocky promontory inclosing 
the harbor of Lipari on the north, while Monte Guardia serves a similar 
purpose on the south. In the middle of the crescent-shaped amphithe¬ 
atre is an isolated rock projecting above the waters of the bay and joined 
to the mainland by a narrow neck. This rock is crowned by the sombre 
walls and towers of the Fort or “ Castello,” and is the site of the ancient 
town. 
