The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1857-02-25
The Crater of Etna,

The Crater of Etna.
At eight O'Clock, after a good supper
at the hcani0, we set out for the crater
Of Mount Etna. 1t was a mild, clear
night; the moon was in her prime, and
the stars shone out like gems of crystallized
light, with out single cloud to obscure
their glorious radiance. Our horses be-
ing no longer available, | was reluctantly
compelled to leave my fjlvorte old charger
and take mule.
Oh, ye stars, which are the poetry of
heaven, what omnipotcnt works ye reveal
ed to us that night What STILL shadowy
forests of gnarled old oaks, and yawning
precipices of darkness unfathomable, OPEN
ed to Us as we toiled upward; what ghost
ly mountains, and cities, and temples of
blackcncd lava loomed through the shad-
owy distance; what boundess valleys of
mystic light lay outsprcad beneath us;
what a solemn stiffness rcigned over the
slumbering earth! Up, high over all,
with its bare and grizzlcd cone, lowered
the smouldcring crater, lonely and DESC
late, but mighty in its desolation. Where
are the castles and palaces that once de-
corated the dim valleys in the depths be-
low? where are the boastcd deeds of Ro-
man and Saracen heroes? where are the
victors and the vanquished now? where is
all that the vaunted ambition Of man has
accomplished? Not for human ken is it
to penetrate the dim vista OF centuries,
aud tell Of all that lies buried beneath
those dark floods; not for all the records
of the pest to reveal the millionth part Of
their sad mysteries.
But | think hear my friend, the Eng
lishman, say, "Sad nonsense all this
Etna is stunning place, to be sure
mighty high, mighty cold, and all that
throws out an amazing quantity Of smoke
now and then-ddn't do bad job when
it buried all those beggars Of Romans and
Saracens, to say nothing of the number
Of rascally Sicilians it has since covered
up. Nonsense-all fudge"
As daylight broke clear and broad over
the the still earth, and the eastern sky
cleaned with the first rays of the rising
sun, We reached the highest peak, and
turned to look down into the vast depths
below. The whole island was wrapt in
an impenetrable mass of sleeping clouds
covering mountain, and valley, and ocean
as a mantle of mist, while not shadow
dimmed the bright sky above. 1t was
thus upon the solitary cone of Etna, with
the broad lucid firmament arched over
us, and the vast sea of floating clouds
outspread below, that there uprose before
us sublime picture of the shattered ark,
as it rested of old amid the subsiding
floods on the heights of Ararat, when the
fountains of the deep and the windows Of
heaven were stopped and the rain from
heaven was restrained.
On the right and on the left yawned a
vast crater lined with banks of sulphur
and ashes; and from out the bowels Of the
earth came clouds of hot smoke, rolling
upward till they vanished in the thin air;
and thousand assures around sent out Jets
of scalding steam, and smoulderins fires
seemed ready to burst forth and spread
ruin and death under their seething floods
and lava. And now, from the bed Of
clouds that rested on the deep, up rose the
sun, scattering away the thin vapors that
hung around his couch, and filling the
air with his glorious radiance; and the
slumbering ocean Of mist that lay upon
the valleys upheaved under his piercing
rays of heat and light, and gathered in a
round the mountain tops and green val
leys, and villages, and vineyards, and
CLEANS of bright waters lay outspread in
the calm of the morning, as it opened
upon the shores and wales Of Sicily. One
gigantic shadow, the shadow of the NIGH
ty Etna, stretched across the lesser noun
tains far below, as far as the eye could
reach; and the valleys beneath it were still
covered with clouds aud the darkness with
in the shadow. Up rose the sun higher
and still higher; and now the floating
vapors that rested upon the earth disap-
peared, and there was nothing left but 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 nothing hid from the heat
thereof" There was not breath of air
to disturb the glittering sea- ships lay
motionless on its unruliled surface; and
on the shores glistened, like flakes of
snow, the villages that were washed by
its waters. Far in the distance the tow
ering mountains of Calabria reared their
rugged peaks, bounding the view toward
the east to the north lay Messina and
the rocks Of Scylla and Charybdis; and
stretching southwark the coast swept un-
der the base of the mountain; its shores
lined with villas and towns, and inden-