KREI8EVIG. 
203 
be imagined. A few lichens and mosses alone 
broke the uniform blackness of their surface; 
and these, far from being in a luxuriant state of 
vegetation, were scarcely to be discerned at a 
little distance, and appeared only minute greyish 
spots. How unlike to the volcanic scenery of this 
frigid region must be that of Etna, where, ac¬ 
cording to the account of an ingenious traveller*, 
iC every beauty and every horror are united, and 
“ all the most opposite and dissimilar objects in 
“ nature; where in one place you observe a gulf 
£C that formerly threw out torrents of fire, now 
“ covered with the most luxuriant vegetation, and 
“ from an object of terror become an object of 
ce delight; where you gather the most delicious 
“ fruits and tread upon ground covered with every 
flower; where you wander over these beauties 
“ and contemplate this wilderness of sweets with- 
ee out considering that hell, with all its terrors, 
“ is immediately under your feet; and that but 
£i a few yards separates us from fire and brim- 
t€ stone.” The horrors alone of the picture given 
us by Brydone are to be met with in the volcanic 
mountains of Kreisevig: for luxuriant vegeta¬ 
tion, fruits, and flowers, other countries must be 
searched, and yet, in spite of the absence of 
every beauty that could attract, or excite a plea- 
* See Brydone's Tour through Sicily and Malta , p. 93. 
