Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/447

Rh said we should have to provide for ourselves just as we had hitherto done.

Toward Hybla Major, pebbles of lava present themselves, which the stream brings down from the north. Over the ferry you find hmestone, which contains all sorts of rubble, hornstone, lava, and calx; and then hardened volcanic ashes, covered over with calcareous tufa. The hills of mixed gravel continue till you come near to Catania, at and beyond which place you find the lava flux from Ætna. You leave on the left what looks like a crater. (Just under Molimenti the peasants were pulling up the flax.) Nature loves a motley garb; and here you may see how she contrives gaily to deck out the dark bluish-gray lava of the mountains. A few seasons bring over it a moss of a high yellow colour, upon which a beautiful red sedum grows luxuriantly, and some other lovely violet flowers. The plantations of cactus and the vine-rows bespeak a careful cultivation. Now immense streams of lava begin to hem us in. Motta is a beautiful and striking rock. The beans are like very high shrubs. The fields vary very much in their geological features,—now very gravelly, now better mixed.

The vetturino, who probably had not for a long time seen the vegetation of the southeastern side of the island, burst into loud exclamations about the beauty of the crops, and with self-complaisant patriotism demanded of us if we ever saw such in our own country. Here, however, everything is sacrificed to them: you see few if any trees. But the sight that most pleased us was a young girl, of a splendid but slight form, who, evidently an old acquaintance, kept up with the mule of our vetturino, chatting the while, and spinning away with as much elegance as was possible.

Now yellow tints begin to predominate in the flowers. Toward Misterbianco the cactuses are again