At length, after somewhat more than an hour’s walk, the most harassing that can be imagined, we arrived at the top just as the day began to dawn.  To paint the feelings at this dizzy height, requires the pen of poetic inspiration; or to describe the scene presented to mortal gaze, when thus looking down with fearful eye on the almost boundless prospect beneath!  The blue expanded ocean, fields, woods, cities, rivers, mountains, and all the wonted charms of the terrestrial world, had a magic effect, when viewed by the help of the nascent light; while hard by yawned that dreadful crater of centuries untold, evolving thick sulphureous clouds of white smoke, which rolling down the mountain’s side in terrific grandeur, at length formed one vast column for many miles in extent across the sky.  Anon the mountain growled awfully in its inmost recesses, and the earth was slightly convulsed!  We now attempted to descend a short distance within the crater; the guides, timid of its horrors, did not relish the undertaking, but were induced at length, and conducted the party behind some heaps of lava, from whence was a grand view of this awful cavern.  The noise within the gulf resembled loud continuous thunderings, and after each successive explosion, there issued columns of white, and sometimes of black smoke.

The crater presents the appearance of an inverted cone, the interior part of which is covered with crystallizations of salts and sulphur, of various brilliant hues—­red appeared to predominate, or rather a deep orange colour.  Writers vary much in their accounts as to the circumference of the crater.  Captain Smyth, R.N., who had an opportunity to ascertain it correctly, describes it as an oval, stretching from E. and by N. to W., and by S. with a conjugate diameter of four hundred and ninety-three yards; the transverse he was prevented from ascertaining by a dense cloud that arose before his operations were completed.  It was soon requisite for us to retire from this spot, as the smoke began to increase, and our guides said that some adventurous travellers had lost their lives by approaching too near, and were either blown into the abyss below by the violence of the wind, which is generally very strong at this elevation, or suffocated by a sudden burst of the sulphureous vapour.

The Regione Deserta, or desolate region of Etna, first attracts the eye, marked in winter by a circle of ice and snow, but now (July) by cinders and black sand.  In the midst the great crater rears its burning head, and the regions of intense heat and extreme cold shake hands together.  The eye soon becomes satiated with its wildness, and turns with delight on the Sylvana region, which, with its magnificent zone of forest trees, embraces the mountain completely round:  in many parts of this delightful tract are seen hills, now covered with the most luxuriant vegetation, that have been formed by different eruptions of Etna.  This girdle is succeeded by another still richer, called the Regione Culta, abundant in every fruit or grain that man can desire:  the small rivers Semetus and Alcantara intersect these fertile fields; beyond this the whole of Sicily, with its cities, towns, and villages, its corn-fields and vineyards in almost endless perspective, charm and delight the senses.