WATSON'S CRUISE IN THE 2BGEA.N..
This volume contains something more than a cruise in the 2Egean. In addition to a steam-voyage from Constantinople to Sicily, Mr. Watson ascended Mount Etna, and visited several of the island cities, crossed over to Naples, spent about a week at Rome, and finally travelled through Savoy, Lombardy, and a portion of the Alps. He also increases the matter of his tour by reminiscences of travel on other occasions.
Neither the voyage nor the land travel was remarkable for inci- dents. The scenery and the cities Mr. Watson saw were beauti- ful in themselves or interesting for their associations. For the most part, however, they had often been described already; and if the author does not make too much of his description, he does not stick to his text. One thing in one place suggests something else like it which he has seen in another place, and the reader is favoured with both at full length. He also falls into the too common habit of drawing upon his memory, or some compendium, for the history of the places he sees.
The principal feature of the volume is the ascent of Mount Etna. The voyage was made in one of her Majesty's steamers ; and on ar- riving at Catania, the captain, the surgeon, and the guest, resolved to do the mountain in four-and-twenty hours, or one half the usual time. This was accomplished by two of the party, but by exertions • A Crab/ill'. the /Egean. The Retrospect of a Summer Journey Westward " from the @seat City by Propontic Sea." Including an Ascent of Mount Etna. By Walter Watson. Published by Harrison. which produced results that rendered the enterprise anything but, desirable to imitate. The captain, who only attained the English cottage, never was his own man again, and he died in three years. after. Mr. Watson and the doctor were obliged to lie down and rest or sleep at considerable risk from the cold; on their return in midday they suffered terribly from the heat. After all, they could not manage sunrise from the summit, which embraces the whole circuit ; though what they saw was magnificent. They did reach the crater at last, at separate intervals ; and then Mr. Watson was repaid.
"In the immediate neighbourhood of the crater, the internal heat suffices jo keep the ground dry and hard, so that the remaining portion of the ascent was accomplished without difficulty or danger ; though we were from time to time enveloped in the clouds of suffocating smoke, or vapour, which inces- santly burst forth from the crater. Our path now lay along the edge of a vast hollow, perfectly round and smooth, and lined with a thick crust of crystallized sulphur, into which I rather hesitatingly followed the guide; but, seeing that he plodded on comme si de rien emit, I felt I could not do
i better than tread in his footsteps over the treacherous ground. After de- scending a little way, we again climbed the steep side, and emerging from this preparatory wonder, stood upon the crater's burning lips.' I did not burst forth into exclamations of wonder and delight, but probably my countenance expressed the inward feelings of the moment ; for the guide looked at me, and said, in a quiet, significant manner," Now, are you satisfied ? '—as much as to say, i
It is worth the trouble, is it not ? ' I was riveted to the spot, literally in breathless admiration. Never before had I felt such a deep, such an awful sense of the power of the Almighty. • • • • " We stood on the edge of a precipitous chasm, sharp and rugged as if the mountain had just been rent asunder. The internal surface, as far as the eye could penetrate, consisted of a coating of sulphureous earth, which seemed to be continually burning without being consumed ; whilst through innu- merable fissures jets of flame darted up, and played over the glowing mass, dazzling the eye by the intense brightness and variety of their colouring; The jagged irregular outline of the whole crater is divided by a vast projecting wall of rock, of most singular appearance, coated with the deposit of the fumes which rise from the great laboratory below. This sublimation, being chiefly sulphur, appeared in every shade of bright yellow, orange, and crim- son, as it glittered in the morning sunbeam. Clouds of dense white vapour rose from time to time from the innermost depths, with a hissing, roaring sound, like a mighty cataract. The occasional intermission of the rising clouds which steamed forth from the great gulf, afforded a partial glance of the lurid fire raging in the internal abyss. All around, as far as the eye could reach, within the crater, huge masses of rock lay tumbled over each other in chaotic confusion. Such an appearance, when the volcano is in a quiescent state, cannot fail to impress a spectator with a fearful idea of the inconceivable powers set in operation when the pent-up fires burst their bonds ; and through this chasm, which is said to be near three miles in ex- tent, the mountain hurls back the rocks buried within it by the fury of some earlier commotion."
The forest which is the midmost of the three different regions or districts gassed in the ascent furnishes a striking picture. " The k orest Region has also an interest peculiar to itself : for the trees, chiefly oak in the part through which we passed, have as unnatural, un- earthly an appearance, as the place in which they are found. The want of a sufficient depth of soil preventing the roots from penetrating downwards, they have spread themselves in curious network over the surface ; or, being forced- upwards by the hard substratum, have formed the most extraordinary na- tural arches against the parent trunk, which is frequently of immense diameter, but rarely above fifteen or twenty feet high, and stag-headed like a pollard-tree. The straggling branches afforded but a meagre shade under such a grilling sun ; and for the benefit of future travellers we could but ex- claim, like the Persians, as we passed, 'May your shadows never be less.' i It is impossible to convey any adequate idea of the black petrified torrents which we sometimes crossed, sometimes followed for a while. There was a strange illusion in some of these streams of lava, where the liquid fire had ploughed a deeper channel than usual. Seen from a little distance, the oak- trees growing on the high banks deceptively led one to think that the spark- ling water was actually bounding over the rocks, filling the air with its joyous music and refreshing spray ; and the contrast was the more hideous as one became conscious of the dead mass in the river-bed, and the deathlike still- ness of the air. Where the Forest Region terminates, on the descent, the streams of lava have spread out like a great river losing itself in low marshy land."
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