period between its colonization by Augustus and the division of the empire.

The ancient tenant of a neighbouring hermitage is the guide to these sepulchral labyrinths. With the venerable padre and several peasants provided with torches, we descended by steps cut in the rock to this dark and gloomy city of the dead, in whose long caverns, shrouded as it were by silence, one starts at the dull echos of the human voice as at some unearthly sound. Having sent forward our torch-bearers, we proceeded up the principal street or avenue, which is about ten feet high, and runs to a great distance in a strait direction, being full as broad as the generality of streets in Sicilian towns: its whole length cannot be determined, on account of a lapse of earth which has taken place. We penetrated to the distance of about 200 yards, observing as we went along, deep contiguous recesses on each side, cut in the rock, with arched roofs, containing many parallel cubitories or receptacles for the tenants of this dreary domain, who here lay peaceably side by side after the feverish fit of life: some of the recesses appear to have been private property, from the marks of gates and locks by which they are secured. A great number of streets run parallel to the principal one: transverse ones cut it at oblique and right angles, whilst others taking a circuitous course, lead to spacious squares and corridors formed by different converging avenues in the more conspicuous situation which these areas afford are found many detached tombs of a large size, destined probably for the reception of distinguished chiefs or holy saints. The walls of the recesses are covered with a fine stucco, painted upon a vermilion ground with various colours and devices, amongst which we observed a number of monograms and symbolical devices, palm-trees, doves, peacocks, processions and funeral ceremonies: but the smoke of torches has grearly impaired the beauty of their designs.

The spirit of antiquarianism has been here to rifle all these sacred repositories: a vast number of lamps, urns, vases, crucifixes, monumental tablets, and other articles torn from their violated asylum, are deposited in the public museum, as well as in private hands. These extensive vaults are ventilated by the external air admitted through conical or bell-shaped apertures over the above mentioned squares and corridors: here as we looked up, we beheld with astonishment an upper story of catacombs, themselves also subterranean, laid out in a manner similar to those we were then exploring. Before we left these funereal precincts, we cut the torches of our guides into small pieces, by the distribution of which in various parts of the caverns, we succeeded in illuminating them to a very considerable extent: the lurid glare of the light produced an effect curious and even sublime.'

From the site of Tycha, the third quarter of the ancient city in Cicero's enumeration, every trace of habitation has vanished, except the channels of aqueducts, the deep indentures of chariot wheels, and the mouldering remains of the city walls. • How all the materials of so many sumptuous edifices and private

mansions, can have completely disappeared,' Mr. Hughes is at a loss to conjecture.

Here is a platform twenty two miles in perimeter, almost entirely composed of solid rock, on which scarcely a vestige remains above ground of the numerous buildings which adorned it, though most of them appeared built for immortality. They have not been used in the construction of the paltry modern town, nor is there any city or public work of importance in the vicinity which owes its origin to the fall of Syracuse. This extraordinary circumstance seems almost to contradict the very tenour of history.'

The remains of the fortress of Hexapylon on the N. W. extremity of the city, are described as one of the most admirable existing specimens of ancient military architecture. The vast subterranean passages whence both infantry and cavalry might make their sorties; the huge square towers of solid masonry; the excellent contrivance of its gateways for every purpose of defence; and the immense blocks of its parapets, bored with grooves to admit of melted pitch or lead being poured down on the assailants; filled our Travellers with astonishment, Descending from the elevated platform on which the city stands, they crossed the marshes of Lysimelia, and proceeded in a boat up the deep and muddy stream of the Anapus to visit the fountain Cyane. The branch which descends from the fountain is translucid, and bending over its clear and tranquil waters is seen the papyrus: its banks are stated to be the only spot in Europe where this delicate plant flourishes in a natural state. After ascending the Cyanean branch of the river some distance, it became choked up with superabundant vegetation, so that the boatmen were obliged to haul along the boat with ropes for nearly half a mile. Nothing but the tall and slender stalks of the papyrus marked the serpentizing course of the stream below. At length, we burst all at once into the spacious fountain, a fine circular bason, about fifty feet in diameter, whose sides are fringed with lilies and papyrus, and whose surface is undisturbed by the slightest ebullition-though at least thirty feet in depth, its transparency is so perfect that the smallest pebble may be seen at the bottom, where large fragments of marble, remains of an ancient temple of Cyane, reflect brilliantly the prismatic colours, and shoals of fish sporting about in perfect security, shine in the sunbeams with scales of gold and purple.'

The celebrated grotto called the Ear of Dionysius, is situated in the last built quarter of ancient Syracuse, Neapolis, which Cicero styles the fourth city. The Lautomia, or quarry, qut of which it has been excavated, is for its eminent beauty named by the Sicilians Il Paradiso it is a hundred feet below the surface of the rock, and has a bottom of rich mould which produces orange and lemon-trees of the most luxuriant growth, with a variety of shrubs and flowers.

Transparent water from the broken aqueducts sparkles as it flows down the sides amidst festoons of creepers and parasitical plants, and being received into basins, or led into channels, gives a perpetual verdure to delightful gardens. Add to these features the contrast of dark and spacious caverns, ancient aqueducts, with large isolated masses of rock, and the reader may form some idea of this subterranean paradise: but to know all its delights, he should feel the agreeable sensation of its delicious coolness in a Syracusan summer.'

The cavern, or grotto, the subject of the apocryphal tradition relative to the Syracusan tyrant, bears in its construction some resemblance to the human ear; but the result of repeated experiments on its acoustic properties, satisfied Mr. Hughes and his companion that the story which connects it with Dionysius is a vulgar error. A distinct whisper is conveyed along the walls in much the same way as in the whispering gallery at St. Paul's; only much less perfectly. The full voice is drowned in the confusion of the echoes; and the voices of several persons speaking at the same time are perfectly unintelligible. The most agreeable effect produced, was by the notes of a German flute, the finest by a bugle horn; the sound in both instances being multiplied till it appeared almost like a band of music.' Mr. Hughes considers that the excavation was probably only an experiment in acoustics, made by some ingenious mechanic of the school of Archimedes.

Having now completed their survey of the antiquities of Syracuse, the Travellers transferred their head quarters to Catania, described as the finest city in Sicily, and, for its size, perhaps, in Europe, and lauded for its agreeable society, its numerous charitable institutions, and the humane disposition of its inhabitants. Most travellers have been struck with the beauty of Catania. Mr. Blaquiere recommends it as a place of residence to those who design to remain any time in the island, in preference to any other spot, not more on account of the beauty of its situation, than on that of the remarkable superior state of manners among the Catanese. It is also the best university in Sicily.

• It is nobly situated on the roots of Etna, its despoiler and its bene factor-overwhelmed as it has often been by torrents of liquid fire, it has risen like the Phoenix more splendid from its ashes. The very substance which once ravaged its plains, has by its own decomposition covered them with soil fertile as the fabled garden of the Hesperides, and on all sides the material of destruction is turned to the purposes of ornament and utility: the streets are paved with lava-houses, palaces, and churches are built of lava-of lava they form ornamental chimney pieces, tables, and a variety of toys-whilst a natural mole of lava defends the shipping from the fury of the tempest. Ask a Catanian what is the substance of almost any thing you behold in art or nature, and his reply will be, with a most significant eleva. tion of his hands and eyebrows," Lava, Signore; tutta, tutta Lava."

The plan of the city is very superb, and no one is permitted to deviate from it in building it contains three streets, each a mile, more or less, in length: the longest and most splendid of these, terminated at one end by the Cathedral, forms at the other a noble vista which directs the eye up a gradual and majestic ascent to the smoking summit of Mount Etna.'

No

Our Travellers accomplished the ascent up the Mountain, computed at 30 miles, on the 27th and 28th of June (1813). It was day-break when they reached the summit of the crater, which, though it appears like a point when viewed from the Catanian plains, is about two miles and a half in circuit. flame was visible, notwithstanding that the ground was so hot as to oblige them to shift their position every two or three minutes. Yet even in the interior of the crater, immense ridges of snow seemed, as Mr. H. expresses it, to dispute the pre-eminence of Fire in the very centre of its dominions.

At length faint streaks of light shooting athwart the horizon, which became brighter and brighter, announced the approach of the great luminary of day: and when he sprang up in splendid majesty, supported, as it were, on a throne of golden clouds, that fine scriptural image of the giant rejoicing to run his course, flashed across my mind. As he ascended in the sky, his rays glittered on the mountain tops, and Sicily became gradually visible, expanded like a map beneath our eyes. The effect is most extraordinary; nearly all the mountains of the Island may be descried, with cities that surmount their summits; more than half the coast, with its bays and indentations, and the promontories of Pelorus and Pachynum, may be traced, as well as the course of rivers from their springs to the sea, sparkling like silver bands which encircle the valleys and the plains. We were unable to distinguish Malta, though I do not on that account doubt the relation of others who profess to have done so: the Lipari isles were very much approximated to view by the refracting power of the atmosphere; as also was the Calabrian coast. The sides of Etna itself are covered with beautiful conical hills, from which ancient lavas have issued; their exhausted craters are now filled with verdant groves of the spreading chesnut, exhibiting the most sylvan scenes imaginable on the plain below, these cones would be lofty mountains; here they appear but excrescences that serve to vary and to beautify the ground.

I must not forget to mention one extraordinary phenomenon which we observed, and for which I have searched in vain for a satisfactory solution: at the extremity of the vast shadow which Etna projects across the island, appeared a perfect and distinct image of the mountain itself, elevated above the horizon, and diminished as if viewed in a concave mirror. Where or what the reflector could be which exhibited this image I cannot conceive: we could not be mistaken in its appearance, for all our party observed it, and we had been prepared for it beforehand by our Catanian friends: it remained visible about ten minutes and disappeared as the shadow decreased. Mr. Jones (the

Rev. W. J. fellow of St. John's Coll.) observed the same phenomenon, as well as some other friends with whom I have conversed upon the subject in England.'

Mr. Hughes notices the malignant attempt of a former traveller to construct an argument against the Mosaic chronology out of the fact, that a stream of lava said to have flowed more than two thousand years ago, is not yet covered with mould; taken in connexion with the circumstance of a well having been cut through seven distinct courses of lava, each of which was covered with a fine mould fit for the purposes of vegetation. The argument takes for granted, that all lava requires an equal length of time for its decomposition, which is contrary to notorious fact. Different eruptions throw up different materials, and some combinations of matter decay very quickly in comparison with others. Besides which, some streams of lava acquire a mould before their decomposition: the lichen often adheres to them; the Indian fig is planted in the crevices, which requires the least possible degree of nutriment; vines succeed, and the very accumulation of decayed vegetable matter in the course of ages produces a layer of soil.' Ashes, too, with which the lava may be covered at the very period of the eruption, are speedily convertible to the purposes of vegetation. Thus superficial are the cavils by which the half-learned and the half-reasoning assail the truth of the Scriptures.

At Messina, Mr. Hughes had an opportunity of witnessing one of the most singular exhibitions of superstitious absurdity which even Sicily can afford; the annual procession of the Bara on the Feast of the Assumption. Messina itself is under the very special protection of the Virgin; and the copy of a letter written by her own hand from Jerusalem in answer to a congratulatory address from the good people of this favoured city, is among the most precious of its treasures. A church is actually dedicated to the Holy Letter, which is endowed with the most miraculous properties. The order of the exhibition is as follows:

The pomp commences with a train of nobles and city magistrates with their insignia of office, and decked in their most splendid habiliments; then follow the military, both cavalry and infantry, with banners flying, to the sound of martial music: next come the fraternities of monks and friars, a motley crew, black, white, and grey, bound round with knotted cords and loaded with relics and crucifixes: these precede an immense car (called the bara) equal in height to the very tops of the houses, which totters as it is dragged along with ropes by many hundreds of cattle in the shape of men. The crowds that follow are innumerable, from town and country. The lower story of this moveable tower is embellished with hangings of rich silk and velvet, forming an imaginary sepulchre for the Virgin; it is filled with a band of musicians and a choir, who chant solemn dirges over the body