mer fit in aqua. Hog, from the Perfian

chok, porcus. Lazy,

from the Hebrew by Otfel, piger,

vel, fi mavis, per meta

thefin, ab Arab. Jl zail, definens, ceffans, quia nempe piger continuo ceffat.' Same, from the Arabic, öl

famaut, or femat, fignum. Cum enim, fays our Author, Anglice dicimus, this is the fame as that, quid aliud innuimus, quam, hoc habet eadem figna, et lineamenta, ac illud ?'-Sneeze, and fnore, from the Arabic näara, fonum emifit per nares. Carthage is derived by Mr. V. from the Arabic & Kariat, urbs, and Ag, equus. Concerning the origin of this latter word, he says, different opinions have been entertained. He endeavours, however, to fupport his own derivation from fome Carthaginian. coins, which bear the figure of a horfe's head, in allufion to that which is faid to have been dug up in laying the foundations of the city * From Ag he alfo derives the Latin Equus, the Irish Eac, the Spanish Haca, the Portuguese Faca, the English Hackney Nag, the Italian Haque-nea, five Chinea, and the French Haque nee. This is the fame hobby-horfe on which Menage rides fo much to his own fatisfaction, though his countryman, Jaucourt, has rather uncivilly endeavoured to drag him from his feat. Mr. Vieyra does not fcruple to get up behind him, and feems as well fatisfied with his place on the crupper, as the Frenchman with his on the faddle. We heartily with that Menage could look behind him, or, in other words, that he could fee his derivations, fo well backed by fuch fonorous words, as will at leaft fupply the lofs of thofe, which, Jaucourt tells us, exist only in the imagination of the French etymologitt. P—✔.

ART. XVI.

VOYAGE PITTORESQUE des Iles de Sicile, de Malte, & de Lipari, i. e. Travels through Sicily, Malta, and Lipari; containing an Account of the Antiquities of thefe Iflands, the principal natural Phenomena they exhibit, and the particular Cuftoms and Manners of the Inhabitants. Numbers XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXI. Large Folio. Each Number containing Six Plates, and Eight Pages of Defcription. Price 12 Livres each Number.

WE

E refume, with pleasure, our too long interrupted account of this capital work, the moft elegant and learned, and, beyond all doubt, the most accurate of the kind. We have had occafion to converse with fome travellers, eminent for their tafte for, and knowledge of, the fine arts, and their affiduous and

*See Juftin, Virgil, and Silius Italicus.

attentive

attentive obfervation of the precious remains of antiquity, who, after a careful view of the objects on the spot, have admired the judicious and accurate manner in which they are represented in the deferiptions and plates of Mr. HOUEL.

N° XV. This number, which, among other things, contains an account of the dreadful fate of Meffina, in the year 1783, is fingularly interefting. The 86th Plate, with which it begins, reprefents the deftruction of the Palazzata, and the parts of that beautiful and magnificent edifice, which ft. fubfift, feen from the fea. This noble edifice prefented to the harbour a femicircular front of 840 toifes in length. It was terminated by the palace of the Viceroy, which (with the Magazines of Porto Franco, at the moment of their fall, and a view of a part of the harbour) are reprefented in the 87th Plate.-The 88th Plate exhibits a view of the fouthern part of the Streights of Meffina, taken from the fhores of Calabria, wherein the coaft of Sicily, from Meffina to Catana, which was ravaged by a dreadful hur ricane, in 1784, is accurately delineated, with Mount Etna in profpect. This is followed by an account of the Baths of Ali; the rich mines of different metals that are found in a vale watered by the river Di Nifo, and a curious defcription of the mineralogical beauties of Taormina, which, in the space of five or fix leagues along the fea coaft, has wherewithal to attract the attention, and excite the admiration, of the lovers of natural history, by the immenfe variety of interefting objects which it offers to their attention. In all the other parts of Sicily, fays our Author, one fees the wonderful operations of nature already finished; but in the diftrict of Taormina, we see them in the progress of their formation, we obferve them, as it were, forming themfelves, and we contemplate marbles and other calcareous tones in their tendency, and their various fteps, towards lapidi fication. Mr. HOUEL gives a very elegant and accurate account of the procedure of nature in her operations, both external and internal, in thefe grottos, or rather deep caverns. He fhews, how rocks, already formed, are decompofed and diffolved by the acid of the air, rendered active by the winds, and the different degrees of the heat of the atmosphere: thefe different degrees, give the air more or less activity, according as feveral accidental circumftances are more or lefs favourable: Nature,' fays he, works with patience :-fhe is not in a hurry: fhe has no fixed epochas, in which fuch or fuch an operation is to be performed; and Mr. HoUEL defcribes her procedure in the fe fingu lar grottos with great perfpicuity.

On the traveller's approach to Taormina (the ancient Taur menium, famous for the commerce of its inhabitants, and their

*This is a hint to Recupero in Brydone's Travels.

tafte

tafte for the arts) he obferved the noble remains of an edifice, which must have been conftructed in a very grand style of architecture; but, neither by examining the parts of it which fubfift, nor the ruins which furround it, could he come at the knowledge of its deftination. Its ruins are delineated in the 89th Plate, and they have a great effect. The following Plate exhibits a general view of the city and theatre of Taormina.

No XVI. Of all the edifices of the kind conftructed by the Greeks, the theatre of Taormina has been the beft preferved from the waftes of time, and is therefore the moft adapted to give us a certain knowledge of the real manner in which thefe buildings were erected. This object therefore occupies the learned and ingenious author throughout this whole number. In fix Plates, accompanied with accurate defcriptions, he unfolds the beauties that ftruck him in the contemplation of this noble Atructure, exhibits the true forms and ufes of all its parts, rectifres the erroneous accounts that have been given of it by modern travellers, and, from difcovering an ancient theatre fo well preferved, takes occafion to treat of the ancient theatres in general, which make fuch an eminent figure in the hiftory of the arts. In the goth Plate we have a general view of the theatre in queftion, of the ground before it, and the ways that lead to it ;-in the 92d, a view of the Profcenium, feen from a part of the city, and from Mount Etna; and in the 93d, 94th, 95th, 96th, beautiful details, plans, and geometrical fections of this celebrated theatre, exquifitely engraved and coloured, and full of effect.

No XVII. The Plates 97, 98, and 99, in this number, contain picturesque views and geometrical plans of ancient tombs, cifterns, and refervoirs. The following two Plates exhibit the perfpective view and the geometrical plan and elevation of a Gymnafium, or place for public exercifes; and in the concluding Plate (102) we have a chart of Mount Etna, copied from that of the famous Canon Recupero, of Catana; who paffed all his life in ftudying the productions and the natural hiftory of this aftonishing mountain.

No XVIII. This number opens with the antiquities of Naxos, built by a colony from the Grecian ifland of that name, and whofe deftruction, by Dionyfius the Elder, gave occafion to the building of Taormina. Thefe ancient remains are reprefented in the 103d Plate. The next contains a perfpective view of Ætna, taken from the fea north-eaft of that mountain, whence it is vifible in all its immenfity. In the 105th, we have a moft beautiful and curious view of its fummit, between Roca della Capra and Trifoglietto. This is followed by an account of the famous eruption of water from one of the craters of Etna, in 1775, that, during feveral weeks, was preceded fucceffively by accumulated objects of confternation and terror. A relation of

10

this

this terrible phenomenon was read by Recupero to the Academy of the Etneans at Catana, and afterwards publifhed; and it is from this paper that Mr. Houel takes the account, or rather the picture before us, which it is impoffible to contemplate without a fympathetic feeling of the aftonishment and difmay that must have seized upon the fpectators of this tremendous fcene. We read of nothing fo terrible and aftonifhing in the hiftory of this awful mountain, on which nature feems to have lavifhed promifcuously all her terrors, and all her beauties.

A very reinarkable rock of bafaltes, rifing out of the fea, near the harbour of Trizza, and a general view of the rocks of the Cyclops, called Faraglione, are exhibited in the 106th and 107th Plates. The 108th, which concludes this number, contains a particular view of one of thefe rocks, as alfo of the promontory of Caftel d'Iaci and of the lower part of Etna which leads to Catana. The bafaltes of thefe rocks refembles, at first fight, that which is known in Italy, France, and the British ifles, by the apparent regularity of its prifmatic co- | lumins; but, on a clofer examination, it exhibits effential dif ferences.

No XIX. The lovers of natural hiftory will find in this number, in which the account of the rocks of the Cyclops is continued, a rich fund of inftruction and curious details, rela tive to the different kinds of bafaltes, and the original formation of that fubftance. The 109th and 110th Plates exhibit curious bafaltic rocks, with the bafaltes in needles, and in columns; fome of thefe columns tending towards decompofition, others already reduced to that ftate. The following beautiful Plate exhibits a view of the promontory, and of a part of the town, of Caftel d'Iaci. This promontory is almoft entirely bafaltes, but of a different kind from any that had hitherto come under our Author's obfervation. It exhibits cylinders from fix inches to twenty feet in diameter: fome maffive, others hollow like cannons; thefe latter extended in ftrata, the others compofed of feveral tops or points, which are compreffed and concentrated together. Beautiful, curious, and fomewhat different from the preceding, are the bafaltes that are obfervable at the foot of this promontory towards the fouth, and which are reprefented in the 112th Plate; their forms and details are regularly finished, and are fingularly pleafing to the eye.-The Author's obfervations on the formation of the bafaltes are acute and instructive. He difcuffes this subject at great length, and confutes the opinion

The Author employs the term needles, to denote a long piece of bafaltes, which is thicker at one of its extremities than at the other, and the word column to denote thofe that are nearly equal in thickness throughout.

of

of those who attribute the configuration of the bafaltes to the fudden refrigeration with which the lava is feized, when, having efcaped from the focus of the volcano which produced it, it arrives in fufion at the cold fea-water. He attributes the regular configuration of the bafaltes to the action of fire alone, and offers many plaufible and ingenious arguments in fupport of this hypothefis. Befides the philofophical reafoning employed to fupport it, he alleges a fact, which evidently proves that the fea-water does not form the bafaltes, namely, that the fluid lava which ran from Mount Etna into the fea at the famous eruption in 1669, and filled up the harbour of Catana, was not metamorphofed into bafaltes.-Several grottos of bafaltes are exhibited in Plate 113th, and a pleafant defcription of the superftitious amusements of the inhabitants of the town of D'Aci, during Paffion week, terminates this number.

No XX. The plate 115th exhibits a very picturesque view of the now caverns or grottos of Etna, which, as Mr. Brydone obferves, furnish fnow and ice not only to the whole island of Sicily, but likewife to Malta, and a great part of Italy, and makes a very confiderable branch of commerce. Mr. HOUEL'S defcription of these grottos, and his account of this commerce, is much more circumftantial and interefting than those that have been given by any preceding traveller. There are very curious particulars for the naturalift in his defcription of the lavas of Calanna, and of the mouth of the volcano of Monte Roffo, or the Red Mountain, which are most beautifully reprefented in the 116th, and the two following plates. It was from this volcano that the great eruption of 1669 iffued forth; which continued, during three or four months, to lay wafte the country between Eina and Catana, rufhed in a flaming torrent of lava against the walls of that city, which it furmounted, filled up the harbour, and made the waves of the Mediterranean retire.

He

From this formidable eruption, the greateft, both in its extent and duration, that is known in the annals of Etna, the Author takes occafion to treat of the formation of volcanos, and by feveral fections, which he gives us of this famous mountain in the 119th Plate, he demonftrates its formation and growth, from the time of its first eruption under the waves of the ocean. proves that there is an immenfe void fpace in the interior of Ætna, which is no more than a cruft exalted in the air.The details here are ample, learned, ingenious, ard inftructive, in the highest degree. The view of Etna, feen from the crater of Monte Roffo, is reprefented in the 120th plate.

N° XXI. This moft interefting number contains an account of Mr. HOUEL's afcent to the fummit of Etna, in which a

variety