ferent periods, and a diminution of as much as 300 feet occurred
during one of the eruptions of Etna, owing to the falling in of the
upper portion of the crater. During the last sixty years, however, the
height of the mountain has been practically constant. In 1815 Captain
Smyth determined it to be 10,874 feet. In 1824 Sir John Herschel, who
was unacquainted with Smyth's results, estimated it at 10,872-1/2 feet.
The new map of the Stato Maggiore gives 3312.61 metres = 10867.94 feet.

When the Canon Recupero devoted two chapters of his quarto volume to a
discussion of the height of Etna, no such exact observations had been
made, consequently he compared, and critically examined, the various
determinations which then existed. The almost perfect concordance of the
results given by Smyth, Herschel, and the Stato Maggiore, render it
unnecessary for us to further discuss a subject about which there can
now be no difference of opinion.

Professor Jukes says, "If we were to put Snowdon, the highest mountain
in Wales, on the top of Ben Nevis, the highest in Scotland, and
Carrantuohill, the highest in Ireland, on the summit of both, we should
make a mountain but a very little higher than Etna, and we should
require to heap up a great number of other mountains round the flanks of
our new one in order to build a gentle sloping pile which should equal
Etna in bulk."

The extent of radius of vision from the summit of Etna is very variously
stated. The exaggerated notions of the earlier writers, that the coast
of Africa and of Greece are sometimes visible, may be at once set aside.
Lord Ormonde's statement that he saw the Gulf of Taranta, and the
mountains of Terra di Lecce beyond it--a distance of 245 miles--must be
received with caution. It is, however, a fact that Malta, 130 miles
distant, is often visible; and Captain Smyth asserts that a considerable
portion of the upper part of the mountain may sometimes be seen, and
that he once saw more than half of it, from Malta, although that island
is usually surrounded by a sea-horizon. It is stated on good authority
that Monte S. Giuliano above Trapani, and the OEgadean Isles, 160 miles
distant, are sometimes seen. Other writers give 128 miles as the limit.
The fact is, that atmospheric refraction varies so much with different
conditions of the atmosphere that it is almost impossible to give any
exact statement. The more so when we remember that there may be many
layers of atmosphere o