Recupero and other companions; the few observations of any value which he made have been alluded to elsewhere under the head of the special subjects to which they refer. The illustrations of the Campi Phlegræi, specially the original water-colours which are contained in one of the British Museum copies, are magnificent, and convey a better idea of volcanic phenomena than any amount of simple reading. From them we can well realise the opening of a long rift extending down the sides of a mountain during its eruption, and the formation of subsidiary craters along the line of fire thus opened. Various volcanic products are also admirably painted. In the picture of Etna, however, which was drawn by Antonio Fabris, the artist has scarcely been more successful than his predecessors, and the slope of the sides of the mountain has been greatly exaggerated.

M. Houel, in his Voyage pittoresque dans les Deux Siciles, 1781-1786, has given a fairly good account of Etna, accompanied by some really excellent engravings.

In 1776 Patrick Brydone, a clever Irishman with a good deal of native shrewdness and humour, published two volumes of a Tour in Sicily and Malta, in which he devoted several chapters to Mount Etna. He made the ascent of the mountain, and collected from the Canon Recupero, and from others, many facts concerning its then present, and its past history. He also made observations as to the height, temperature of the air at various elevations, brightness of the stars, and so on. Sir William Hamilton calls Brydone "a very ingenious and accurate observer," and adds that he was well acquainted with Alpine measurements. M. Elie de Beaumont, writing in 1836, speaks of him as le celebre Brydone; while, on the other hand, the Abbé Spallanzani, displeased at certain remarks which he made concerning Roman Catholicism in Sicily, never fails to deprecate his work, and deplores "his trivial and insipid pleasantries." Albeit Brydone's chapters on Etna furnished a more complete account of the volcano than any which had appeared in English up to that time; his remarks are frequently very sound and just, and we shall have occasion more than once to quote him.

It was reserved, however, for the Abate Francesco Ferrara, Professor of Physical Science in the University of Catania, to furnish the first history of Etna and of its eruptions, which had any just claim to completeness. It is entitled, Descrizione dell' Etna, con la Storia delle Eruzioni e il Catalogo del prodotti. The first edition appeared in 1793, and a second was printed in Palermo in 1818. The author had an enthusiastic love for his subject:—"Nato sopra l'Etna," he writes, "che io conobbi ben presto palmo a palmo la mia passione per lo studio fissò la mia attenzione sul bello, e terribile fenomeno che avea avanti agli occhi." The work commences with a general description of the mountain—its height, the temperature of the different regions, the view from the summit, the mass, the water-springs, the vegetable and animal life, and the internal fires. This extends over sixty-nine octavo pages. The second part of the book—eighty pages—gives a history of the eruptions from the earliest times to the year 1811; the third part—sixty-seven pages—treats of the nature of the volcanic products; and the fourth part—thirty-four pages—discusses certain geological and physical considerations concerning the mountain. At the end there are a few badly drawn and engraved woodcuts, and a map which, although the trend of the coast-line is quite wrong, is otherwise fairly good. The engravings represent the mountain as seen from Catania; the Isole dei Ciclopi, and the neighbouring coast; the Montagna della Motta; and a view from Catania of the eruption of 1787. This work has evidently to a great extent been a labour of love; it is full of personal observations, and also embodies the results of many other observers. It has furnished the foundation of much that has since been written concerning Etna.

The Canon Recupero has been alluded to above; he accompanied Hamilton, Brydone, and others to the summit of the mountain, and he was employed by the Government to report on the flood which, in 1755, descended with extraordinary violence through the Val del Bove. Beyond this, Recupero does not appear to have published anything concerning Etna, although it was well known that he had plenty of materials. He died in 1778, and it was not till the year 1815 that his results were published under the title of Storia Naturale et Generale dell' Etna, del Canonico Giuseppe Recupero.—Opera Postuma. This work consists of two bulky quarto volumes, the first of which is devoted to a general description of the mountain, the second to a history of the eruptions, and an account of the products of eruptions. Some idea may be formed of the extreme prolixity of the author if we mention that two chapters, together containing twelve quarto pages, are devoted to the discussion of the height of Etna, while the first volume is terminated by sixty-three closely printed pages of annotations. A few rough woodcuts accompany the volumes; a view of the mountain which, as usual, is out of all reason as regards abruptness of ascent, and a carta oryctographia di Mongibello in which the trend of the coast-line between Catania and Taormina is altogether inexact, complete the illustrations of this most detailed of histories.

During the years 1814-1816 Captain Smyth, acting under orders from the Admiralty, made a survey of the coast of Sicily, and of the adjacent islands. At this time the Mediterranean charts were very defective; some places on the coast of Sicily were mapped as much as twenty miles out of their true position, and even the exact positions of the observatories at Naples, Palermo, and Malta were not known. Among other results, Smyth carefully determined the latitude and longitude of Etna, accurately measured its height, and examined the surroundings of the mountain. His results were published in 1824, and are often regarded as the most accurate that we possess.

In 1824 Dr. Joseph Gemellaro, who lived all his life on the mountain, and made it his constant study, published an "Historical and Topographical Map of the Eruptions of Etna from the era of the Sicani to the year 1824." In it he delineates the extent of the three Regions, Coltivata, Selvosa, and Deserta; he places the minor cones, to the number of seventy-four, in their proper places, and he traces the course of the various lava-streams which have flowed from them and from the great crater. This map is the result of much patient labour and study, and it is a great improvement upon those of Ferrara and Recupero, but of course it is impossible for one man to survey with much accuracy an area of nearly 500 square miles, and to trace the tortuous course of a large number of lava-streams. Hence we must be prepared for inaccuracies, and they are not uncommon—the coast line is altogether wrong as to its bearings, some of the small towns on the sides of the mountain are misplaced, and but little attention has been paid to scale. Still the map is very useful, as it is the only one which shows the course of the lava-streams.

Mario Gemellaro, brother of the preceding, made almost daily observations of the condition of Etna, between the years 1803 and 1832. These results were tabulated, and they are given in the Vulcanologia dell' Etna of his brother, Professor Carlo Gemellaro, under the title of Registro di Osservazioni del Sigr. Mario Gemellaro.

Carlo Gemellaro contributed many memoirs on subjects connected with the mountain. They are chiefly to be found in the Atti dell' Accademia Gioenia of Catania, and they extend over a number