Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1880-07-03
A View of -Etna.

IL was now December. but Ia spite of my haste
to set on the mountain before the SHOWS GOV.
cred it stopped at Taormina half way to Gaia
MIA (whence the ascent Was 10 be made). to view
Etna from the north. TaOrrnina is built on The
southern slope or spur projecting iato the
Mediterranean, whose northern ridge, rising q
thousand feet above the sea, Is crowned bv
the ruins OF a Grecian theater The stream OF
pleasure travel seems to pass by this Won
tourists see the shores OF Sicily, except from
the steamer which takes them to Athens or
Alexandra: but II the reader is among those
few, he may remember the view from these
ruins at sunrise as one of which the earth can
not furnish many. He win remember, perhaps,
rising long before day break for solitary climb
through steep lanes. half seeing half CROPPING
his way between high walls, over which started
into dim sight spectral figures with out
stretched arms resolved, as he drew nearer
into some oyerleaning cactus, vaguely outlined
or erhead against the starry sky. Mounting
higher, one comes out from between the over
shadowing walls into the moonlight the wan
Ing moon, a crescent in the east. holding the
old neon in her arms while when higher vet
the columns of the ancient prosceniuIn stand
out against faint glow that shows where the
sun is yet to rise; TILL, passing by these, climb
ing and cropping up the stone benches which
once held tiers or spectators, one takes soil
tary seat at the summit. Below, the last lights
are still twtnkling on the coast, but beyond and
over the columns, all along the south, rises a
oak something, Which might be a hundred
yards away, but is Atna, and twenty miles dis
tanf. AS the dawn grows brighter the outlook
extends north and east to Italy. and as the sun
makes ready to come out OF the ocean the gray
mass In the south moves further away, and
taxes on dlStfnctneSS as it recedeS, until
We make out the whole form OF
TINA. with the outline OF the crater and OF
the snow fields about its summit These distant
SHOWS suddenly changed their gray to rose
pink as they caught the light or the sun before
1t had risen to me; but OF all that was seen
cerned with the mountain itself, which can be
viewed better here, as whole, than from any
nearer point.
The coast line on the left preserves the level
base of Etna that it fills the whole southern
landscape, which seems to be tilted upward till
its horizon ends In the sky. could see from
here low almost inoomparabIy larger the lm-
actual difference is In fact enormous. the height
OF 1Etna being III we disregard the terminal
cone OF each) nearly three times, and its mass
Pessooy se enre nat ~ S a
substance is lava, which has built itself
up In eruptions; but from this point
the successive zones Of vegetation are visible
which in the course OF age have In part occu-
pied its surface. Extending TO perhaps a hfoh
OF the whole actual height before me Out cover
ing great deal more of the foreground In APP
pearance) is the cultivated region, dotted with
Villages which shine out from background Of
what we know must be vineyards and olives
The second zone Is barren, and In sharp con-
trast with the former; Il rises to perhaps Two;
masses OF gray are patched with moss-nke
spots hardly distfnguishable In color, but which
are really forests OF oak and chestnut
All above this rose what even from my
distant station could be recognized as naked
black deserts, streaked here and there with
snow, while above this was the terminal cone,
der ression at ~ the e summit from from which slowly
drffted a thin vapor. The railway south OF
Taormlna runs along the coast {and Is carried
through cuttings on old lava streams, when
haro IN
Catania city which, as every one knows, IS
not only built on lava, but which has been cut
through and through by lava streams ana
shaken down by earthquakes In recent times,
and which lives from day to day at the mercy
Of its terrible neighbor.-& p. Langley, in Jaty
Atlantic.