508 
sun’s light takes in descending from its 
summit to the sea.* 
Having arrived near a mass of snow 
which filled one of the' narrow passes 
of the mountain, a summit which look¬ 
ed black in the sky, made me believe 
that I was at the end of the journey; 
an old tower which I took for the Torre 
del Filosofo , confirmed me in my error. 
1 soon after perceived another summit 
covered with a whitish smoke ; I asked 
if it was much higher than the other: 
my guide affirmed that it was, and he 
was in the right, for it seemed to me to 
surpass the first in the whole height 
of Vesuvius. The road became more 
united, and the acclivity gentler, but 
tbe wind was very violent, and the cold 
as sharp as it is with you in winter. 
We coasted along a torrent of black 
lava, the more singular, as its elevation 
was from eight to ten feet, and perpen¬ 
dicular like a wall, which clearly proved 
to me, that this matter, in flowing, is 
not in perfect fusion ; as a great part of 
* In returning from Alexandria to Mar¬ 
seilles in the month of March, I saw Etna 
covered with snow. A calm having lasted 
some hours, I profited by it to take the 
height of this mountain. With the aid of 
a mariner’s compass, I perceived that the 
Cape Sparti-Veuto, in Calabria, reached 
us by the N.N.E., and Cape Passaro, in 
Sicily, by the S.W.; I was then sure of the 
point where 1 found myself on the chart. 
(We made use on board of the French charts 
of the Mediterranean, which are very 
good.) This point being at a distance of 
sixty miles from the foot of the axis of 
Etna, I measured at that time the angle 
which the summit of the mountain made 
with the horizon; it was found to be six de¬ 
grees; which gave me a rectangular tri¬ 
angle of which I knew a side and the three 
angles, the one right, the other of six de¬ 
grees, and the third of eighty-four degrees. 
The base being of sixty miles, there re¬ 
mained for me only to make the following 
proportion: 
Sin. 84° : 66 miles : : Sin. 6° : 4|| 
The result is found to be, for the axis side 
of Etna, four miles aud twenty-four eighty- 
fourths, above four miles and a quarter, 
or about twenty thousand, four hundred 
feet for the total height. This measure is 
not perhaps perfectly correct, but, at least, 
it approximates very near to it. If this 
height appears surprising, vse ought to 
consider that other great mountains have 
never been measured but with the bax-o- 
meter, and that Mr. Brydone was surprised 
to see the mercury here, descending nearly 
two inches lower than on the summit of the 
Alps. 
jJan. 1 
the substances which it drags along, are 
sufficiently hard to prevent their melt¬ 
ing, and that they are like the basalt, 
detached from the immense vaults 
which during many ages supported this 
natural forge. The sky began to adorn 
itself in the east, and we perceived the 
house called Les Anglais. You have 
generally the key of this hut; but 
not having sent a shilling, with my re¬ 
quest, to the person it belonged to, or 
rather to his domestic, we entered into 
the stable, where we kindled the char¬ 
coal which we had brought, and I can 
assure you, that I experienced there a 
pleasure which I had not for a long time 
enjoyed, that of being cold and feeling 
the beneficent heat of the fire. After 
a light breakfast I directed my steps to¬ 
wards the place where, according to 
custom, the curious go to behold the 
rising of the sun. 
There is no sight in the world which 
can equal this: the point of Calabria, 
the sea which separates it from Sicily, 
the mountains of Southern Italy, even 
the clouds which covered them, seemed 
to be at your feet. 
The horizon was in a blaze: a globe 
of fire escaped from the floods, it was 
the sun appearing in the midst of the 
fog: it was of a greyish red, and its 
horizontal diameter was much greater 
than the perpendicular. The colour 
became more vivid ; a rapid flash of 
lightning which glided along the sur¬ 
face of the sea, announces the presence 
of the star of day; its diameter enlarged, 
and it rose in the heavens. I profited 
by the moment in which the shadows 
still lengthened on the plains, to climb 
up the last summit, at a distance of 
two miles. 
I do not exactly know how it can be 
explained, why the sun appears length¬ 
ened in the fog, if it is not by the pres¬ 
sure which each bed of the latter pro¬ 
duces on the one under it; the stars 
appeared brilliant and numerous, and 
the moon was small but bright. I have 
already more than once remarked this 
effect in the most elevated places, Avhich 
I attribute to the rarefaction of the air 
diverging a little the luminous rays. 
The mule-driver remaining with our 
beasts,' I bent my steps towards the 
last summit, which covered with a light 
white smoke, 'seemed to move away 
from the impatient traveller. We 
walked nearly a mile on an almost ho¬ 
rizontal lava, or to speak more correct¬ 
ly, on striated scoriae, or dross, which 
made a cracking noise under our feet, 
and 
A Visit id Etf/ct. 
