We found the mountains of Sicily, like those of Spain, covered with snow; and considering the bleak wintry prospect which the country offered at the distance from which we viewed it, we never should have guessed that the gardens were full of green trees, bending under the weight of ripe oranges. This however was the fact, as we afterwards discovered. In steering from this quarter towards Malta, we sailed over the spot where a volcanic island suddenly rose up from the bottom of the sea a few years ago; a surprising phenomenon, of which the reader may like to hear a short account. This part of the Mediterranean is known to abound in subterranean fires. Ætna is always burning; the Lipari islands contain volcanoes, and Vesuvius, with its terrible eruptions, has long been familiar to every reader. This whole region, both land and sea, probably rests on an immense bed of fire. Wherever this fire can get vent, it breaks out; the Lipari islands all present the appearance of having been formed in this manner. On the south coast of Sicily, the inhabitants were surprised one day to behold tremendous flames of fire breaking out of the sea in a spot where the water was known to be very deep. This alarming eruption continued for several days, with dreadful explosions, like the discharges of artillery, and showers of ashes and thick columns of smoke that obscured the light of the sun. When the eruption had partially subsided, a considerably large island was found to have emerged from the bottom of the sea. It continued smoking for many days, and at length several persons had the courage to venture off in small vessels, and land upon it. They found it to consist of black scoriæ, cinders and ashes, the substances which are commonly ejected from volcanoes. Pools of hot water stood here and there in the cavities of the surface; great heaps of dead fishes were scattered about, and the smoke of sulphur was steaming up from the hollows and crevices that abounded in the island. Such was the singular appearance of a spot that rose up from the sea, as it were out of the bowels of the earth. It would have been hazardous for a man to take up his permanent abode on this newly-formed territory, and we do not find that any one had the inclination to make any long stay on the spot. After standing a few months, the new island sunk as suddenly as it rose, and the sea over it appears to be as deep as ever. [Illustration: _A Volcanic Island thrown up from the Sea._]