582 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



fearfully, emitting huge stones to a considerable height, and the 

 roar and tumult are terrible " ; meanwhile the central crater on 

 the summit of Etna continued to vomit great columns of steam 

 and ashes. " On Sunday the eruption had greatly diminished, but 

 on Monday morning it broke forth with great violence, and a 

 fresh crater sent out a stream of lava one hundred and fifty 

 metres wide and twenty-three deep, which flowed down at the 

 rate of one hundred and sixty to one hundred and ninety feet an 

 hour toward Nicolosi. On Monday evening the news was very 

 disquieting. The violence of the eruption was then greatly in- 

 creasing, and Nicolosi seemed doomed to destruction. The noise 

 at a considerable distance is described as resembling a continuous 

 cannonade." On the 19th Prof. Amico recorded ninety-two earth- 

 quakes ; on the following day, only twenty ; but afterward the 

 number rose from twenty-five to thirty, twenty- seven, twenty- 

 five, and finally to fifty-two on the I^iSth. The eruption reached its 

 height on the 31st of May, and the people were so alarmed that 

 the town was evacuated. 



The great lava stream which threatened Nicolosi divided into 

 two, one advancing toward Altarelli and the other descending on 

 the east side of Monte Rosso, and on the od of June stopped within 

 three hundred and seventy metres of the town, parting just behind 

 a structure like that seen in the accompanying picture. The in- 

 habitants affirm that this was in direct answer to the prayers 

 of the clergy, who with their parishioners in solemn procession 

 marched toward the advancing lava when the danger seemed most 

 imminent. 



According to Prof. Silvestri, the lava stream of 1886, like that 

 of 1883, flowed from the rent or fissure which was opened in 1875 

 in the flank of the volcano, and extended in a northeast and south- 

 west direction. 



In the September following it was safe to visit the scene, and 

 the Count L. dal Verme estimated that during the eruption Ge- 

 mellaro ejected about sixty-six million cubic metres of eruptive 

 matter, covering a space of five square kilometres and a half on 

 the flank of the mountain, and approaching within less than half 

 a mile of Nicolosi, situated near the upper limit of the vine. The 

 vineyards were destroyed to the extent of some twenty thousand 

 lire. 



In 1890 M. Emile Chaix, of Geneva, ascended Mount Etna, 

 camping out several days on or near its summit. From his bright 

 and interesting account, entitled JJne Course a VEtna, originally 

 contributed to the Journal de Geneve for September, 1890, we 

 quote the following description of the crater of Gemellaro as it 

 appeared the summer succeeding that in which we visited it : 



" It still gives out a little sulphurous vapor, and is carpeted 



