Mt. Etna. This Sicilian peak is the highest volcano in Europe, 10,758 ft. The Torre de Filosofo is a Roman structure 1188 ft. below the summit, the latter attainable in 7-8 hours from the village of Nicolosi. The mountain is 18 miles N.W. of Catania and is surrounded by a rail ellipse of 90 miles. Thucydides mentions eruptions in the 8th and 5th centuries B.C. The Greeks believe it was the mountain with which Zeus crushed the giant Typhon. Hadrian ascended it. The Americans, Howard and Van Rensselaer, reached the summit (and also of Vesuvius) in 1819, prior to the ascent of Mont Blanc.