CHAPTER XXI

Summary

As we have entered into a detailed historical account of the changes in the volcanic district round Naples, our limits will only permit us to allude in a cursory manner to some of the circumstances of principal interest in the history of other volcanic mountains. After Vesuvius, our most authentic records relate to Etna, which rises near the sea in solitary grandeur to the height of nearly eleven thousand feet, the mass being chiefly composed of volcanic matter ejected above the surface of the water. The base of the cone is almost circular∧ and eighty-seven English miles in circumference; but if we include the whole district over which its lavas extend, the circuit is probably twice that extent. The cone is divided by Nature into three distinct zones, called the fertile, the woody, and the desert regions. The first of these, comprising the delightful country around the skirts of the mountain, is well cultivated, thickly inhabited, and covered with olives, vines, corn, fruit-trees, and aromatic herbs. Higher up, the woody region encircles the mountain—an extensive forest, six or seven miles in width, affording pasturage for numerous flocks. The trees are of various species, the chestnut, oak, and pine, being most luxuriant; while, in some tracts, are groves of cork and beech. Above the forest is the desert region, a waste of black lava and scoriæ; where, on a kind of plain, rises the cone to the height of about eleven hundred feet, from which sulphureous vapours are continually evolved The most grand and original feature in the physiognomy of Etna are the multitude of minor cones which are distributed over its flanks, and which are most abundant in the woody region.