88 
NEWER PLIOCENE PERIOD. 
[Ch. VII. 
enter into the structure of the great cone, will be seen dipping 
at a much more rapid angle. 
The lavas and tuffs, which have conformed to the sides of 
Etna, dip at angles of from fifteen to twenty-five degrees, while 
the slope of the lateral cones is from thirty-five to fifty degrees. 
Now, wherever we meet with sections of these buried cones in 
the precipices bordering the Val del Bove, (and they are fre- 
quent in the cliffs called the Serre del Solfizio, and in those 
near the head of the valley not far from the rock of Musara,) 
Ave find the beds dipping at high angles and inclined in various 
directions *. 
Scenery of the Val del Bove. — Without entering at present 
into any further discussions respecting the origin of the Val del 
Bove, we shall proceed to describe some of its most remarkable 
features. Let the reader picture to himself a large amphi- 
theatre, five miles in diameter, and surrounded on three sides 
by precipices from two thousand to three thousand feet in 
height. If he has beheld that most picturesque scene in the 
chain of the Pyrenees, the celebrated f cirque of Gavarnie,' 
he may form some conception of the magnificent circle of pre- 
cipitous rocks which inclose, on three sides, the great plain 
of the Val del Bove. This plain has been deluged by re- 
peated streams of lava, and although it appears almost level 
when viewed from a distance, it is, in fact, more uneven 
than the surface of the most tempestuous sea. Besides the 
minor irregularities of the lava, the valley is in one part inter- 
rupted by a ridge of rocks, two of which, Musara and Capra, 
are very prominent. It can hardly be said that they 
' ' like giants stand 
To sentinel enchanted land 
for although, like the Trosachs, they are of gigantic dimen- 
* I perceive that Professor Hoffmann, who visited the Val del Bove after me 
(in January, 1831), has speculated on its structure as corresponding to that of the 
so-called elevation craters, which hypothesis would require that there should he a 
quaqu3.-versal dip, such as I have above alluded to. I can only account for this 
difference of opinion, by supposing the Professor to have overlooked the pheno- 
mena of the buried cones. — Archiv fur Mineralogie, &c. Berlin, 1831. 
