Unfortunately I could distinguish very little of it.

We had started from Messina at about six o'clock in the evening, and did not come in sight of the mountain until two hours later, when the shades of night were already descending; we were, besides, at such a distance from it that I could descry nothing but a colossal mass rising from the sea and towering towards heaven.

I stayed on deck until past ten o'clock in the hope of obtaining a nearer view of Stromboli; but we had soon left it behind us in the far distance, with other islands which lay on the surface like misty clouds.
October 7th.
To-day I hastened on deck before sunrise, to see as much as possible of the Sicilian coast, and to obtain an early view of Palermo.

At ten o'clock we ran into the harbour of this town.
I had been so charmed with the situation of Messina that I did not expect ever to behold any thing more lovely; and yet the remembrance of this town faded from my mind when PALERMO rose before me, surrounded by magnificent mountains, among which the colossal rock of St.Rosalia, a huge slab of porphyry and granite, towered high in the blue air.

The combination of various colours unites with its immense height and its peculiar construction to render this mountain one of the most remarkable in existence.