View of Etna from Catania _To face Title._ Topographical Map of Etna _To face page_ 1 Sections of Etna " 30 Grotto delle Palombe " 36 The Casa Inglesi and Cone of Etna " 52 View of the Val de Bove " 58 View of Etna from Bronte " 66 Island of Columnar Basalt off Trezza " 74 Geological Map of Etna " 114 Map of the Val del Bove (woodcut) 117 Ideal Section of Mount Etna 119 Profile of Etna 121 Sections of Etna Lavas seen under the Microscope, _to face p._ 138 [Illustration: Topographical Map of Etna] ETNA. A HISTORY OF THE MOUNTAIN AND OF ITS ERUPTIONS. CHAPTER I. HISTORY OF THE MOUNTAIN. Position.--Name.--Mention of Etna by early writers.--Pindar.-- Æschylus.--Thucydides.--Virgil.--Strabo.--Lucretius.--Lucilius Junior.--Etna the home of early myths.--Cardinal Bembo.--Fazzello.-- Filoteo.--Early Maps of the Mountain.--Hamilton.--Houel.--Brydone.-- Ferrara.--Recupero.--Captain Smyth.--Gemellaro; his Map of Etna.-- Elie de Beaumont.--Abich.--Hoffmann.--Von Waltershausen's _Atlas des Aetna_.--Lyell.--Map of the Italian Stato Maggiore.--Carlo Gemellaro.--Orazio Silvestri. The principal mountain chain of Sicily skirts the North and a portion of the North-eastern coast, and would appear to be a prolongation of the Apennines. An inferior group passes through the centre of the island, diverging towards the South, as it approaches the East coast. Between the two ranges, and completely separated from them by the valleys of the Alcantara and the Simeto, stands the mighty mass of Mount Etna, which rises in solitary grandeur from the eastern sea-board of the island. Volcanoes, by the very mode of their formation, are frequently completely isolated; and, if they are of any magnitude, they thus acquire an imposing contour and a majesty, which larger mountains, forming parts of a chain, do not possess. This specially applies to Etna. "Coelebs degit," says Cardinal Bembo, "et nullius montis dignata conjugium, caste intra suos terminos continetur." It is not alone the conspicuous appearance of the mountain which has made it the most famous volcano either of ancient or modern times:--the number and violence of its eruptions, the extent of its lava streams, its association with antiquity, and its history prolonged over more than 2400 years, have all tended to make it celebrated.