ch slights. The
Vatican having duly considered the question consented to raise Aci to
the dignity of a Bishopric, and to pay the Bishop a yearly stipend of
10,000 lire, (about L400, but equal to L600 in Sicily), on condition
that 200,000 lire were paid at once into the coffers of the Vatican.
This was promptly done, and now Monsignore Gerlando Genuardi, Bishop of
Aci Reale, may snap his fingers in the face of Monsignore Giuseppe
Benedetto Dusmet, a Benedictine of the Congregation of Monte Cassino,
and Archbishop of Catania.

[Illustration: Island of Columnar Basalt off Trezza]

Six villages in the neighbourhood of Aci Reale bear the name of Aci: Aci
Castello, Aci Sant' Antonio, and so on, but Aci Reale claims to stand
upon the very site rendered memorable by the story of Acis and Galatea.
The river Acis (now called _Acque Grande_) rises from a bed of lava, and
falls into the sea a mile from its source. Aci Reale stands on seven
different beds of superposed lava, having layers of earth resulting from
decomposed lava between. The Canon Recupero calculated from observation,
that a lava requires at least 2000 years to form even a scanty layer of
earth, consequently he inferred that the lowest of the lava streams upon
which Aci rests must have been formed 14,000 years ago. These views he
stated to Brydone a hundred years ago; the latter says, "Recupero tells
me he is exceedingly embarrassed by these discoveries in writing the
history of the mountain. That Moses hangs like a dead weight upon him,
and blunts all his zeal for enquiry; for that really he has not the
conscience to make his mountain so young as that prophet makes the
world. What do you think of these sentiments from a Roman Catholic
Divine? The Bishop, who is strenuously orthodox--for it is an excellent
See--has already warned him to be upon his guard, and not to pretend to
be a better natural historian than Moses; not to presume to urge
anything that may, in the smallest degree, be deemed contradictory to
his sacred authority." The Canon Recupero lost his church preferment on
the publication of Brydone's book, and the whole body of clergy of
Girgenti received a reprimand on account of a capital story which
Brydone told of a dinner at which the Bishop presided, during which
several of the reverend Canons suffered severely from the effects of
English punch, which Brydone had brewed for them. We quite agree with
Admiral Smyth when he says, "It is a pity that Mr. Br