Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/429

B. vi. c. ii. 9. SICILY. 415 crater, and left as a vestige of his folly one of the brazen sandals which he wore, it being found outside at a short dis- tance from the lip of the crater, with the appearance of having been cast up by the violence of the flame ; for neither is the place approachable nor even visible, nor yet was it likely that any thing could be cast *n thither, on account of the contrary current of the vapours and other matters cast up from the lower parts of the mountain, and also on account of the over- powering excess of heat, which would most likely meet any one long before approaching the mouth of the crater ; and if eventually any thing should be cast down, it would be totally decomposed before it were cast up again, what manner of form soever it might have had at first. And again, although it is not unreasonable to suppose that the force of the vapour and fire is occasionally slackened for want of a continual supply of fuel, still we are not to conclude that it is ever possible for a man to approach it in the presence of so great an opposing power. ^Etna more especially commands the shore along the Strait and Catana, but it also overlooks the sea that washes Tyrrhenia and the Lipari Islands. By night a glowing light appears on its summit, but in the day-time it is enveloped with smoke and thick darkness. 9. The Nebrodes mountains 1 take their rise opposite 2 to jEtna ; they are not so lofty as JEtna, but extend over a much greater surface. The whole island is hollow under ground, and full of rivers and fire like the bed of the Tyrrhenian Sea, 3 as far as Cuma3a, as we before described. 4 For there are hot springs in many places in the island, some of which are saline, as those named Selinuntia 5 and the springs at Himera, while those at ^Egesta 6 are fresh. Near to Acragas 7 there are certain lakes, 8 the waters of which taste like the sea, but their 1 Sicilian topographers vary exceedingly in defining the position of these mountains. Groskurd makes them Madonia. 2 To the south-west. 3 See Humboldt, Cosmos, i. 242. 4 Book v. chap. iv. 9. * I Bagni di Sciacca. 6 Now ruins at Barbara, in the valley of Mazzara. 7 Girgenti. 8 A modern traveller is of opinion that these correspond with certain peculiar marshes near Girgenti, in the midst of the Macaluba mountains, supplied by a spring of salt water. The soil here is chalky, and the mountains abound in a grey and ductile clay. See Monsieur le Com- mandeur de Dolomieu, Voyage aux lies de Lipari, pp. 165 et seqq. ; also Fazell. Decad. i. lib. i. cap. 5, p. 45.