wretchedly mean and dirty, that we were obliged to look out for other lodgings; and by the affiftance of the Canonico Recupero, for whom we had letters, we foon found ourselves comfortably lodged in a convent. The prince of Biscaris (the governor of the place) a person of very great merit and diftinction, returned our vifit this forenoon, and made us the most obliging offers.

Signor Recupero, who obligingly engages to be our Cicerone, has fhewn us fome curious remains of antiquity; but they have been all fo fhaken and fhattered by the mountain, that hardly any thing is to be found entire.

Near to a vault, which is now thirty feet below ground, and has probably been a burial place, there is a draw-well, where there are several ftrata of lavas, with earth to a confiderable thickness over the surface of each ftratum. Recupero has made use of

this as an argument to prove the great antiquity of the eruptions of his mountain. For if it requires two thousand years or upwards, to form but a scanty foil on the furface of a lava, there' must have been more than that space of time betwixt each of the eruptions which have formed these ftrata. But what fhall we fay of a pit they funk near to Jaci, of a great depth. They pierced through feven diftinct lavas one under the other, the furfaces of which were parallel, and most of them covered with a thick bed of rich earth. Now, fays he, the eruption which formed the lowest of these lavas, if we may be allowed to reafon from analogy, must have flowed from the mountain at least 14000 years ago.

Recupero tells me, he is exceedingly embarraffed, by thefe difcoveries, in writing the history of the mountain.-That Mofes hangs like a dead weight upon him,and blunts all his zeal for inquiry; for that really he

has

has not the confcience to make his moun

tain so young, as that prophet makes the

world. What do think of these fentiyou ments from a Roman Catholic divine ?The bishop, who is ftrenuously orthodox→→ for it is an excellent fee-has already warn ed him to be upon his guard: and not to pretend to be a better natural historian than Mofes; nor to presume to urge any thing that may in the smallest degree be deemed contradictory to his facred authority. Adieu.

Ever yours.

LETTER VIII.

Catania, May 26th.

THIS morning we went to see the house

and museum of the prince of Biscaris; which, in antiques, is inferior to none I have ever seen, except that of the king of Naples at Portici. What adds greatly to the value of these is, that the prince himfelf has had the fatisfaction of seeing moft of them brought to light. He has dug them out of the ruins of the antient theatre of Catania, at an incredible expence; but happily his pains have been amply repaid, by the number and variety of curious objects he has difcovered. It would be endlefs to enter into an enumeration of them even during our short stay, we had the fatisfaction of seeing part of a rich Corinthian cornice, and feveral pieces of ftatues, produced

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produced again to the light, after lying for fo many ages in darkness and oblivion. His collection of medals, cameios, and intaglios is likewise very princely, and fo are the articles in natural history: but the polite and amiable behaviour of the owner, gives more pleasure than all his curiofities. He did not, oftentatiously, like the prince of Villa Franca, tell us, that his house and carriages were at our command; but without any hint being given of it, we found his coach waiting at our door; and we shall probably be obliged to make use of it during our stay. His family confists of the princess his wife, a fon, and a daughter, who seem to emulate each other in benignity. They put me in mind of fome happy families I have seen in our own country, but resemble nothing we have yet met with on the continent. He is juft now building a curious villa on a promontory formed by the lava of 1669. The spot where the house ftands was formerly at least 50 feet

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deep