ASCENT OE MOUNT ETNA. 
37 
and, if it comes, then it will be time enough to think of 
escape. So they live on in a happy sense of security; and, 
if the climate permitted, no doubt the crater itself would be 
inhabited. Does any body refrain from traveling by railway 
because cars have run off the track ? Do the people of the 
West go in keel-boats because steamboats blow up ? Does a 
man abstain from going to the mines of California because 
his brother or friend has “ shuffled off the mortal coil” in a 
gold pit ? 
Vineyards thrive in the lava of Mount Etna. The whole 
district of San Nicolosi, which has been covered a dozen 
times, and which will most likely be covered again the very 
first time old Etna rouses from his long siesta , and belches 
forth his fiery floods, is thickly inhabited, and doubtless would, 
if practicable, go on increasing and extending up toward the 
summit till it got into the regions of fire and brimstone. 
The village of San Nicolosi is about two hours from Ca¬ 
tania. We reached the locanda , or inn, an hour or so before 
sunset; and having nothing there to interest us, we cast 
about us for some means of passing the rest of the afternoon. 
The padrona, a good-natured, talkative fellow, informed us 
that there lived not far off one Senor Gemmellaro, who was 
a sort of conspicuous character in the neighborhood, and who 
spoke good English, and was always glad to see Englishmen 
and Americans—in short, that he could tell us a good deal 
about Mount Etna that would be of use to us. Encouraged 
by this piece of information, we set out, under the padrona’s 
guidance, to pay a visit to Senor Gemmellaro, who was at 
his villa outside the village. 
A pleasant walk of half a mile through the narrow lanes 
that separate the vineyards of Nicolosi brought us to the gate 
of Senor Gemmellaro’s villa. Here we found collected forty 
or fifty merry damsels, with baskets on their heads filled with 
the grapes of the vineyard. It did our hearts good to see the 
merry sunburnt faces of these damsels, and hear their jovial 
voices as they sang their songs of gleesome labor. A happier 
looking set of beings I never saw, in their ragged dresses and 
brd ad-brimmed hats; and I venture to say they were as 
