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Show Snow on Mt. Etna Belongs To Archbishop of Catania ROME, Italy All the snow that falls on Europe's tallest volcanic peak, Mount Etna, which became active recently, belongs to the Roman Ro-man Catholic archbishop of Catania. This almost unbelievable fact dates back to a grant from medieval times. And ever since then its been a considerable revenue producer for the Catania archdiocese because plenty of snow falls on 10,758-foot Mount Etna. For several thousand feet down from its central crater, the volcano Is snow-capped most of the year. Trenches are dug and shoveled full of snow. Before summer sets in, the white-packed trenches are covered with fir tree branches to keep off the sun. The snow packs into natural ice. That ice is a valuable commodity all the sweltering summer in Catania Cata-nia and a score of little summer-resort summer-resort villages along the East Cicil-ian Cicil-ian coast at the bottom of the mountain. moun-tain. In the earliest days of the grant, there was no other refrigeration. Even now, the Etna snow sells at prices just as good or better than those for the artificial Ice available in Catania. There are no figures on how much the snow is worth, but it is presumed pre-sumed to net the church several thousand dollars a year. When Etna erupted violently recently, re-cently, it melted away some of the snow. But there are several square miles of it left. |