Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/442

416 asses, and mules, we met in abundance. The horses are mostly dapple-gray, with black feet and manes. The stables are very splendid, with well-paved and vaulted stalls. For beans and flax the land is dressed with dung: the other crops are then grown after this early one has been gathered in. Green barley in the ear, one up in bundles, and red clover in like fashion, are offered for sale to the traveller as he goes along.

On the hill above Caltanisetta I found a hard limestone with fossils: the larger shells lay lowermost, the smaller above them. In the pavement of this little town, we noticed a limestone with pectinites.

Behind Caltanisetta the hill subsided suddenly into many little valleys, all of which pour their streams into the river Salso. The soil here is reddish and very loamy, much of it unworked: what was in cultivation bore tolerably good crops, though inferior to what we had seen elsewhere.

To-day we had to observe still greater fertility, and want of population. Heavy rains had fallen, which made travelling anything but pleasant, as we had to pass through many streams which were swollen and rapid. At the Salso, where one looks round in vain for a bridge, I was struck with a very singular arrangement for passing the ford. Strong, powerful men were waiting at the riverside. Of these, two placed themselves on each side of a mule, and conducted him, rider, baggage, and all, through the deep part of the river, till they reached a great bank of gravel in the middle: when the whole of the travellers have arrived at this spot, they are again conducted in the same manner through the second arm of the stream; while the fellows, by pushing and shoving, keep the animal in the right track, and support him against the current.