MALTA AND SICILY. 
271 
been nearer we should have heard loud 
noises. Stromboli is an unquiet spirit, 
always grumbling and fuming. It has been 
suggested, however, that he may perform the 
part of a safety-valve for the escape of 
gasses generated by internal combustion, and 
that perhaps by this means his gigantic 
neighbour, Mount Etna, is kept in the peace¬ 
able and harmless state in which it has now 
remained for many years. 
We continued to have favourable, but very 
light winds, till we were about one hundred 
and fifty miles from Messina, when, after a 
few hours’ calm, we were assailed by a strong 
breeze from the north-westward. Finding it 
impossible to make head against it, we were 
obliged to bear up, and to run back for shel¬ 
ter under Lipari, the principal of the groupe 
of volcanic islands of that name. It ap¬ 
peared to be six or seven miles in length, 
