60 Observations upon the 



of crvslals being formed. All the cvystals found among 

 thtm are produced during the cooling of the lava." 



I must remark in the first place, that the expressions so 

 oi'ten repeated, of the lava gushing and Jloiving out like 

 ■H'dfer, are merely metaphorical ; for, so far from lava in any 

 case flowhig like water, it successively leaves all its matter 

 fixed upon the ground over which it passes. 



M. Fleuriau de Bcllevue surely does not recollect the lava 

 of Etna of IOG9, which i have already quoted. 



This lava, which came out of the base of this great vol- 

 cano, extended over some leagues in length, advanced into 

 the sea, where it accumulated into prodigious heaps, after 

 having covered its route with an enormous extent of its mat- 

 ter both in breadth and thickness. This is certainly one of 

 those lavas which hold the first rank among volcanic erup- 

 tions. But I Repeat that this lava, the fragments of which 

 1 have before me, is filled throughout its whole course, from 

 its leaving the crater to the extremity of its destructive track*, 

 with a nmltitude of pyroxene schorls of these whitish cry- 

 stalline laroiuLE I have described, and with a great number of 

 small chrysolites, and the crater whence they came has vo- 

 mited out myriads o^f these same substances. Do we see 

 then any formations eftected at the tiine of the cooling of 

 the lava, when all its crystals existed in it at the time of its 

 greatest fusion and incandescence, the very fire of the erup- 



* Tliere is an- account published of this d.-eadfu! eruption, made at the tine 

 by the pari of Winchelsea, who on his return by sea from his embassy to 

 Constanthiople, halted 24 hours at Catanaand was an eye-vvitness of it. The 

 lava tvhich was tlien caHed the torrent of fire had reached the sea. " By ils hor- 

 rid dcmsUlnvn mid rapii! progrcsf, thix torrent was called,'" says the ambassador, 

 " an iuiafh/lioji, a t!el:ige of fire:'' It was precipitated into the sea, with a 

 horrible noise ; the boiling of the water, the thick vapours and dreadful hiss- 

 ings, and the burning; substance swhich conthmally flowed down, all contu- . 

 buicd to increase the horror of the scene. No human means bcmg- able to ar- 

 rL^t the flames which this devastating torrent produced in its progress, it de- 

 stroyed the habitations of 97,000 persons. It flowed along the walls of Cata- 

 na; the inhabiliints saved themselves with their most valuable eflects. The 

 city, however, was preserved; but its walls and bastions on the side on wliich 

 sl-.c lava flowed, which was the south, were buried under it. Pans of them 

 art still seen through some brge lissures. The appearance of these enormou* 

 piles t>f hk:k roci.: cri-itcs. tJic ideu of chios and desolation. 



tion 



