30 ABOUT VOLCANOS AND EARTHQUAKES. 



me on the spot by an eye-witness the Old IMan of the 

 Mountain, Mario Gemellaro the side of ^tna was 

 rent by a great fissure or crack, beginning near the top, 

 and throwing out jets of lava from openings fourteen or 

 fifteen in number all the way down, so as to form a row 

 of fiery fountains rising from different levels, and all 

 ascending nearly to the same height : thereby proving 

 them all to have originated in the great internal cistern 

 as it were, the crater being filled up to the top level. 



(40.) From the summit of ^Etna extends a view of 

 extraordinary magnificence. The whole of Sicily lies at 

 your feet, and far beyond it are seen a string of lesser 

 volcanos ; the Lipari Islands, between Sicily and the 

 Italian coast ; one of which, Stromboli, is always in 

 eruption, unceasingly throwing up ashes, smoke, and 

 liquid fire. 



(41.) But I must not linger on the summit of ^tna. 

 We will now take a flight thence, all across Europe, to 

 Iceland a wonderful land of frost and fire. It is full of 

 volcanos, one of which, Hecla, has been twenty-two 

 times in eruption within the last 800 years. Besides 

 Hecla, there are five others, from which in the same 

 period twenty eruptions have burst forth, making about 

 one every twenty years. The most formidable of these 

 was that whicli happened in 1783, a year also memor- 

 able as that of the terrible earthquake in Calabria. In 

 May of that year, a bluish fog was observed over tlie 

 mountain called Skaptar Jokul, and the neighbourhood 

 was shaken by earthquakes. After a while a great pillar 

 of smoke was observed to ascend from it, which dark- 



