Did the captain happen to know those little frequented and almost forgotten islands opposite Sicily?
"I know all about all of them," replied the sailor boastfully.

And without realizing exactly whether it was curiosity on the part of the listener, or whether he was being submitted to an interesting examination, he talked on and on.
He was well acquainted with the archipelago of the Lipari Islands with their mines of sulphur and pumice-stone,--a group of volcanic peaks which rise up from the depths of the Mediterranean.

In these the ancients had placed Aeolus, lord of the winds; in these was Stromboli, vomiting forth enormous balls of lava which exploded with the roar of thunder.

Its volcanic slag fell again into the chimneys of the crater or rolled down the mountain slopes, falling into the waves.
More to the west, isolated and solitary in a sea free from shoals, was Ustica,--an abrupt and volcanic island that the Phoenicians had colonized and which had served as a refuge for Saracen pilots.

Its population was scant and poor.