ture struck me as being more elegant. The quarry from which they were hewn lies all around: bending strata of calcareous travertine cropping out from the mountain's side.

The effect of the morning light was grand and imposing the Temple looks nearly duc North, and the sun's rays gilding the colonnade on one side projected on the other a beautiful shadow of the entire building, pillar, nave and pediment, on the grassy slope. This effect is best seen as you descend the opposite hill, on which the amphitheatre stands the Temple then faces you, and the shadow is laid down on the right, if the hour be about 8 A. M.

The whole thing is as ghostly as Melrose Abbey: nothing is here to break the charm of solitude which approaches almost to the sublime; the mules making up for lost time among the bent and trefoil are hidden by the edge of the hill; the shrewd guide is with them, occupied probably in computing how much he will charge you. Meantime you may forget your foolish purse, and think of the days that are gone. How many thousands once were busy here! and what is become of their dwellings? Here is indeed the Temple, standing un

hurt as if by magic but for the rest, nought save waste blocks strewing the vast area. Where are the happy homes, the busy mart, the sociable streets? All is gone, but how did it disappear? Did an earthquake level the " pauperum tabernas reguique turres" yet spare the temple? I should rather incline to believe that some ruthless conqueror, such as Agathocles, in the hour of vengeance, ploughed up the city but feared to touch what was consecrated.

The Amphitheatre, Roman of course, must have been an elegant one, judging by what remains. It was of unusually small dimensions. The courses here are laid in a blue stone selected from the curling edge of the quarry. Report says that the imperial Nicolas meditates a

trip from the palaces

of Palermo to this mountain scene: I advise him to carry his bed with him to Calatafimi. What a man is this! surely the eagle of his tribe. Even Madame Catalani's glowing description of his appearance scarce prepared me to see such an energetic Colossus. L'Imperatrice seems to be mending in health here: but oh! grief to the Palermites, they must not fire the guns, as she cannot bear the concussion. But to return to our villa. What

singular associations cross one's path in life! All my schoolboy days rushed back on me just now as clear as if present. We were taking a turn on the gravelled walk that runs round the shrubbery: a little yellow owl was tied by the leg to a hutch: sundry suspicious-looking twigs lay here and there athwart the hedge-row, and half a dozen linnets and sparrows stood chirping at him. Returning chez nous, a glance at our landlord explained the whole affair: he held in either hand a prisoner fluttering on a lime-twig; "due bocconi," said he, with a grim smile: the "civetta" had been playing the part of decoy-duck, and these were the first-fruits. In another minute, before we could grant them grace, he twisted both their necks, and declared we should see them at dinner.

CATANIA.

December.

AFTER a peep at Messina, here we are at the foot of Etna, in a town historically old, but actually new, looking up at a cone ten thousand feet above us white with snow. Nothing can well be more striking than the coast of Sicily, whether you sweep by it in a steamer, or take a "vettura" occasionally and post across such levels as have roads made on them. From Palermo to Messina we had the boat, and from its deck made acquaintance with the Lipari Isles, Scilla and Charybdis, and Stromboli. The appearance of this latter gives a more simple impression of the power of volcanic agency than even the lofty furnace of Vesuvius : here is a rocky chimney rising like a lighthouse amid the waves, and in a state of constant ignition day and night for some thousand years.

Charybdis has golden sands and a picturesque tower: there is still a considerable whirlpool off shore which the steamers avoid. Scilla's rocks would wreck any craft mad enough to brush against them; but with ordinary care there can be

little danger of coming into such contact, for the tide which carries you into the bay of Messina through the strait flows like a millstream.

The road from Messina hither presented nothing worthy of remark, save the dry beds of watercourses, which in six weeks are to become torrents. Of these, albeit noways picturesque, one is constrained to take note every half-hour, as the large pebbles almost unwheel you. The way the vehicle is packed, though sensible enough on other grounds, renders these bumps inevitable whenever the road is uneven: all the luggage is slung in a rope-net below the belly of the carriage, and of course clashes with every obstruction that occurs. And thus, three horses abreast, you get along, some five miles an hour. The sixty odd miles between Messina and this took a couple of days, as the same cattle must do all the work.

We have been here a week, and I have ascendedEtna; a matter very easy in summer, but somewhat difficult in the snow. Real danger I should say there is none for any healthy person, if he or she will observe certain precautions. Professor Gemellaro, who lives at Nicolosi on the mountain, was good enough to put me on my guard just in