Note 116 — MOUNT ETNA. WRITTEN AFTER HAVING READ MR BRYDONE’S TOUR THROUGH SICILY.

l. 18. Acis—Mr Brydone mentions the peculiar coldness of this river, hence often called in Sicily, il fiume Freddo; also, that it rises out of the earth at once, a large stream. It is the river celebrated by the poets, into which the nymph Galatea transformed the shepherd Acis, her lover, after he had been killed by the giant, Polypheme. Mr Brydone ingeniously observes, that the extreme velocity of the current, seems, from our recollection of the fable, to be inspired by terror.