The celebrated _Castagno di Cento Cavalli_, one of the largest and oldest trees in the world, is in the Forest of Carpinetto, on the East side of the mountain, five miles above Giarre. This tree has the appearance of five separate trunks united into one, but Ferrara declares that by digging a very short distance below the surface he found one single stem. The public road now passes through the much-decayed trunk. Captain Smyth measured the circumference a few feet from the ground, and found it to be 163 feet, which would give it a diameter of more than 50 feet. The tree derives its name from the story that one of the Queens of Arragon took shelter in its trunk with a suite of 100 horsemen. Near this patriarch are several large chestnuts, which, without a shadow of doubt, are single trees; one of these is 18 feet in diameter, and a second 15 feet, while the _Castagno della Galea_, higher up on the mountain, is 25 feet in diameter, and probably more than 1000 years old. The breadth of the Regione Selvosa varies considerably, as may be seen by reference to the accompanying map; in the direction of the Val del Bove it is very narrow, while elsewhere it frequently has a breadth of from 6 to 8 miles. The Desert Region is embraced between the limit of 6,300 feet and the summit. It occupies about 10 square miles, and consists of a dreary waste of black sand, scoriæ, ashes, and masses of ejected lava. In winter it remains permanently covered with snow, and even in the height of summer snow may be found in certain rifts.