This submarine volcano is not the only witness to the activity of subterranean forces in Southern Italy. We meet there with mineral springs discharging carbonic acid and other gases, which prove fatal to the smaller animals venturing within their influence, and with a naphtha lake near Palagonia, from which escape, {317} likewise, irrespirable gases. A similar phenomenon may be witnessed in connection with the Lake of Pergusa, which occupies an ancient crater about four miles in circumference, and usually abounds in tench and eels. From time to time, however, an escape of poisonous gases appears to take place from the bottom of the lake, which kills the fish, whose carcasses rise to the surface. Another of these salses has made its appearance farther west, near the Palazzo Adriano, {318} and, indeed, the whole of underground Sicily appears to be in a state of chemical effervescence.
Next to Mount Etna the great centre of volcanic activity in Sicily appears to be near Girgenti, at a place known as the Maccalubas. The aspect of this spot changes with the seasons. In summer bubbles of gas escape from small craters filled with liquid mud, which occasionally overflows, and runs down the exterior slopes. The rains of winter almost obliterate these miniature volcanoes, and the plain is then converted into one mass of mud, from which the gases escape. At the beginning of this century the soil was occasionally shaken by earthquakes, and on these occasions jets of mud and stones were ejected to a height of ten or twenty yards. The Maccalubas appear now to be in a state of quiescence, for these mud volcanoes also seem to have their regular periods of rest and activity.
The deposits of sulphur, which constitute one of the riches of Sicily, undoubtedly owe their existence to these subterranean lakes of seething lava. These sulphur beds are met with in the tertiary strata extending from Centorbi to Cattolica, in the province of Girgenti. They date from the epoch of the Upper Miocene, and are deposited upon layers of fossil infusoria exhaling a bituminous odour. Geologists are not yet agreed on the origin of these sulphur beds, but it is most likely that they are derived from sulphate of lime carried to the surface by hot springs. In the same formation beds of gypsum and of rock-salt are met with, and the latter may frequently be traced from a saline effervescence known as occhi di sale (“eyes of salt”).
Sicily, like Greece, enjoys one of the happiest climates. The heat of summer is tempered by sea breezes which blow regularly during the hottest part of each day. The cold of winter would not be felt at all if it were not for the total absence of every comfort in the houses, for ice is not known, and snow exceedingly rare. The autumn rains are abundant, but there are many fine days even during that season. The prevailing winds from the north and west are salubrious, but the sirocco, which usually blows towards the south-east, is deadly, especially when it reaches the northern coast. It generally blows for three or four days, and during that time no one thinks of clarifying wine, salting meat, or painting houses or furniture. This wind is the great drawback to the climate. In some parts of Sicily the exhalations from the swamps are dangerous, but this is entirely the fault of man. It is owing to his neglect that Agosta and Syracuse suffer from fevers, and that death forbids the stranger to approach the ruins of ancient Himera.[109]
Temperature and moisture impart to the vegetation of the plains and lower valleys a semi-tropical aspect. Many plants of Asia and Africa have become acclimatized in Sicily. Groups of date-palms are seen in the gardens, and the plains around Sciacca, almost African in their appearance, abound in groves of dwarf palms, or giummare, to which ancient Selinus was indebted for its epithet of Palmosa. Cotton grows on the slopes of the hills up to a height of 600 feet above the sea; bananas, sugar-cane, and bamboos do not require the shelter of {319} greenhouses; the Victoria regia covers the ponds with its huge leaves and flowers; the papyrus of the Nile, which is not known anywhere else in Europe, chokes up the bed of the Anapo, near Syracuse: formerly it grew also in the Oreto, near Palermo, but it does so no longer. The cactus of Barbary (Cactus opuntia) has become the most characteristic plant of the coast districts of Sicily, and is rapidly covering the most unpromising beds of lava. These and other plants flourish most luxuriantly on the southern slopes of Mount Etna, where the orange-tree bears fruit at a height of 1,700 feet, and the larch ascends even to 7,400 feet. These slopes facing the African sun are the hottest spots in Europe, for the volcano shelters them from the winds of the north, whilst its dark-coloured scoriæ and cinders absorb the rays of the mid-day sun.
Those portions of Sicily which are clothed with trees or shrubs are always green, for orange-trees, olive-trees, carob-trees, laurels, mastic-trees, tamarisks, cypresses, and pines retain their verdure even in winter, when nature wears a desolate aspect in our own latitudes. There is no “season,” so to say, for with a little care all kinds of vegetables can be had throughout the year. The gardens around Syracuse are famous above all others, because of the striking manner in which they contrast with the naked rocks surrounding them. The most delightful amongst them is the Intagliatella, or Latomia de’ Greci, which occupies an old quarry where Greek slaves dressed the stones used in erecting the palaces of Syracuse. The vegetation there is most luxuriant; the trunks of the trees rise above masses of shrubs, their branches are covered with creeping plants, flowers and ripening fruit cover the paths, and birds without number sing in the foliage. This earthly paradise is surrounded by precipitous walls of rock covered with ivy, or bare and white as on the day when Athenian slaves were at work there.
Sicily lies on the high-road of all the nations who ever disputed the command of the Mediterranean, and its population consequently consists of a mixture of the most heterogeneous elements. Irrespectively of Sicani, Siculi, and other aboriginal nations, whose position amongst the European family is uncertain, but who probably spoke a language akin to that of the Latins, we know that Phœnicians and Carthaginians successively settled on its shores, and that the Greeks were almost as numerous there as in their native country. Twenty-five centuries have passed since the Greeks founded their first colony, Naxos, at the foot of Mount Etna. Soon afterwards Syracuse, Leontini, Catania, Megara Hyblæa, Messina, and other colonies sprang into existence, until the whole of the littoral region was in the hands of the Greeks, the native populations being pushed back into the interior. In Sicily the Greek met with the same climate, and with rocks and mountains similar in aspect to those of his native home. The “Marmorean” port and the wide bay of Syracuse, the acropolis and Mount Hybla, do they not recall Attica or the Peloponnesus? The fountain of Arethusa, on the island of Ortygia, which is supplied through underground channels, reminds us of the fountain of Erasinos and of many others in Hellas, which find their way through fissures in the limestone rocks to the seashore. The Syracusans said that the river Alpheus, enamoured of {320} the nymph Arethusa, did not mingle its waters with those of the Ionian, but found its way through subterranean channels to the coast of Sicily, where it rose again at the side of the fountain dedicated to the object of his adoration, bringing the flowers and fruits of beloved Greece. This legend bears testimony to the great love which the Greek bore his native land, whose very fountains and plants were supposed to follow him into his new home.
If we may judge from the number of inhabitants with which the principal towns were credited at that time, Sicily must have had a population of several millions of Greeks. The Carthaginian merchants and soldiers, on the other hand, though they were the masters of portions of the island for two or three centuries, never settled upon it, and only a few walls, coins, and inscriptions bear witness now of their ever having been present. It has been very judiciously remarked by M. Dennis that the most striking evidence of their reign is presented in the desolate sites of the cities of Himera and Selinus. At the same time we must not forget that the Carthaginians, by intermingling with the existing population, materially affected the ulterior destinies of the island. The Romans, who held Sicily for nearly seven centuries, did so in a still higher degree. Vandals and Goths likewise left traces behind them. The Saracens, themselves a mixed race, imparted their Southern impetuosity to the Sicilians, whilst their conquerors, the Normans, endowed them with the daring and indomitable courage which at that period animated these sons of the North. In 1071, when the Normans laid siege to Palermo, no less than five languages were spoken on the island, viz. Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and vulgar Sicilian. But Arabic was the tongue of the civilised inhabitants, and even during the dominion of the Normans inscriptions upon palaces and churches were written in it. It was at the court of King Roger that Edrisi wrote his “Geography,” one of the great monuments of science. In 1223 the last Arabs were made to emigrate to Naples, but by that time much Arab blood already flowed through the veins of the inhabitants.