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 vast a height, to support as it were in the air, and even to force it over the very summit of the crater, with all the dreadful accompaniments; the boiling of the matter, the shaking of the mountain, the explosions of flaming rocks, &c. we must allow, that the most enthusiastic imagination, in the midst of terrors, hardly ever formed an idea of a place of punishment more dreadful.

It was with a mixture both of pleasure and pain that we quitted this awful scene. But the wind had risen very high, and clouds began to gather round the mountain. In a short time they formed another heaven below us, and we were in hopes of seeing a thunder-storm under our feet: A scene that is not uncommon in these exalted regions, and which I have already seen on the top of the high Alps. But the clouds were soon dispelled again by the force of the wind, and we were disappointed in our expectations.

We left the summit of the mountain about o'clock, and it was eight at night before we reached Catania.—We observed, both with pleasure and pain, the change of the climate as we descended— the regions of the most rigid winter, we soon arrived at those of the most delightful spring. On first entering the forests, the trees were still bare as in December, not a single leaf to be seen; but after we had descended a few miles, we found ourselves in the mildest, and the softest of climates: the trees verdure, and the fields covered with all the flowers of the summer; but as soon as we got out of the  and entered the torrid zone, we found the heats altogether insupportable, and suffered dreadfully from them before we reached the city.