THE CRATER*. 
47 
darkness within the shadow. Up rose the sun higher and 
still higher; and now the floating vapors that rested upon 
the earth disappeared, and there was nothing left hut the 
bright glowing abyss of mountain and valley, bathed in his 
effulgent rays; for “ his going forth is from the end of the 
heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is no¬ 
thing hid from the heat thereof.” There was not a breath 
of air to disturb the glittering sea; ships lay motionless on 
its unruffled surface ; and on the shores glistened, like flakes 
of snow, the villages that were washed by its waters. Far 
in the distance the towering mountains of Calabria reared 
their rugged peaks, bounding the view toward the east ; to 
the north lay Messina and the rocks of Soy 11 a and Charybdis; 
and stretching southward the coast swept under the base of 
the mountain; its shores lined with villas and towns, and 
indented by the bays of Catania, Agosta, and Syracuse. Back 
toward the west lay the interior of Sicily, a desert of parched 
and barren hills, with scarce a tree or spot of verdure to re¬ 
lieve the sterility of the vast wilderness. And now, as we 
gazed entranced upon this scene of awful sublimity, the smoke 
rose up in heavy masses from the crater, and whirling around 
us with a sudden gust, shut out sea and earth, and filled the 
air with noxious gases ; and the sun had a lurid and ghastly 
glare through the gloom, and we thought the earth trembled. 
But soon the gust passed away, and left us unharmed amid 
the smouldering masses of ashes and sulphur. 
My friend, the Englishman, considered the whole thing 
“ excessively fine ;” in which sentiment I heartily agreed 
with him, with the understanding, however, that it would 
require the simultaneous rising of the sun, and moon, and all 
the stars to get me up there again in the middle of the night; 
a sentiment in which we both agreed, and thus compromising 
all previous diversity of tastes, we sat down in a comfortable 
bed of sulphur, and, warming our hands in a jet of steam, lit 
a couple of cigars, and smoked cosily with old Etna. 
It is difficult, without any means of measurement, to give 
a correct idea of the extent and depth of the craters ; and, 
unfortunately, I have no books at hand from which to derive 
