SNOW-Grotto, an excavation made by the waters on the side of Mount Etna, by making their way under the layers of lava, and by carrying away the bed of pozzolana below them. It occurred to the proprietor, that this place was very suitable for a magazine of snow: for in Sicily, at Naples, and particularly at Malta, they are obliged for want of ice to make use of snow for cooling their wine, slobber, and other liquors, and for making sweetmeats.
This grotto was hired or bought by the knights of Malta, who having neither ice nor snow on the burning rock which they inhabit, have hired several caverns on Etna; into which people whom they employ collect and preserve quantities of snow to be sent to Malta when needed. The grotto has therefore been repaired within at the expence of that order; flights of steps are cut into it, as well as two openings from above, by which they throw in the snow, and through which the grotto is enlightened. Above the grotto they have also levelled a piece of ground of considerable extent: this they have inclosed with thick and lofty walls, so that when the winds, which at this elevation blow with great violence, carry the snow from the higher parts of the mountains, and deposit it in the inclosure, it is retained and amass'd by the walls. The people then remove it into the grotto through the two openings; and it is there laid up, and preserved in such a manner as to resist the force of the summer heats; as the layers of lava
with which the grotto is arched above prevent them from making any impression.
When the season for exporting the snow comes on, it is put into large bags, into which it is pressed as closely as possible; it is then carried by men out of the grotto, and laid upon mules, which convey it to the shore, where small vessels are waiting to carry it away.
But before those lumps of snow are put into bags, they are wrapped in fresh leaves; so that while they are conveyed from the grotto to the shore, the leaves may prevent the rays of the sun from making any impression upon them.
The Sicilians carry on a considerable trade in snow, which affords employment to some thousands of mules, horses, and men. They have magazines of it on the summits of their loftiest mountains, from which they distribute it through all their cities, towns, and houses; for every person in the island makes use of snow. They consider the practice of cooling their liquors as absolutely necessary for the preservation of health; and in a climate, the heat of which is constantly relaxing the fibres, cooling liquors, by communicating a proper tone to the fibres of the stomach, must greatly strengthen them for the performance of their functions.
In this climate a scarcity of snow is no less dreaded than a scarcity of corn, wine, or oil. We are informed by a gentleman who was at Syracuse in the year 1777, when there was a scarcity of snow, the people of the town learned that a small vessel loaded with that article was passing the coast: without a moment's deliberation they ran in a body to the shore, and demanded her cargo; which, when the crew refused to deliver up, the Syracusans attacked and took, though with the loss of several men.