In about five hours from the time we had left the convent of St. Nicolo dell' Arena, we arrived at the borders of the third region, called La Netta, or Scoperta, _clean_ or _uncovered_, where we found a very sharp air indeed; so that, in the same day, the four seasons of the year were sensibly felt by us, on this mountain; excessive summer heats in the Piemontese, spring and autumn temperature in the middle, and extreme cold of winter in the upper region. I could perceive, as we approached the latter, a gradual decrease of vegetation; and from large timber trees we came to the small shrubs and plants of the northern climates: I observed quantities of juniper and tanzey; our guide told us that later in the season there are numberless curious plants here, and that in some parts there are rhubarb and saffron in plenty. In Carrera's History of Catania, there is a list of all the plants and herbs of Etna in alphabetical order.
Night coming on, we here pitched a tent, and made a good fire, which was very necessary; for without it, and very warm cloathing, we should surely have perished with cold; and at one of the clock in the morning of the 26th, we pursued our journey towards the great crater. We passed over vallies of snow, that never melts, except there is an eruption of lava from the upper crater, which scarcely ever happens; the great eruptions are usually from the middle region, the inflamed matter finding (as I suppose) its passage through some weak part, long before it can rise to the excessive height of the upper region, the great mouth on the summit only serving as a common chimney to the Volcano. In many places the snow is covered with a bed of ashes, thrown out of the crater, and the sun melting it in some parts makes this ground treacherous; but as we had with us, besides our guide, a peasant well accustomed to these vallies, we arrived safe at the foot of the little mountain of ashes that crowns Etna, about an hour before the rising of the sun. This mountain is situated in a gently inclining plain of about nine miles in circumference; it is about a quarter of a mile perpendicular in height, very steep, but not quite so steep as Vesuvius; it has been thrown up within these twenty-five or thirty years, as many people at Catania have told me they remembered when there was only a large chasm or crater, in the midst of the abovementioned plain. Till now, the ascent had been so gradual (for the top of Etna is not less than thirty miles from Catania, from whence the ascent begins) as not to have been the least fatiguing; and if it had not been for the snow, we might have rode upon our mules to the very foot of the little mountain, higher than which the Canon our guide had never been: but as I saw that this little mountain was composed in the same manner as the top of Vesuvius, which, notwithstanding the smoak issuing from every pore, is solid and firm, I made no scruple of going up to the edge of the crater; and my companions followed. The steep ascent, the keenness of the air, the vapours of the sulphur, and the violence of the wind, which obliged us several times to throw ourselves flat upon our faces to avoid being overturned by it, made this latter part of our expedition rather inconvenient and disagreeable. Our guide, by way of comfort, assured us, that there was generally much more wind in the upper region at this time.