342 DOMAIN XII. VOLCANIC. 



place where I stood, a circular aperture was 

 visible, apparently about five poles in diameter, 

 from which issued the larger column of smoke, 

 which I had seen before I arrived at the summit 

 of Etna. I shall not mention several streams of 

 smoke, which arose like thin clouds from the 

 same bottom, and different places in the sides. 

 The principal column, which at its origin might 

 be about twenty feet in diameter, ascended ra- 

 pidly in a perpendicular direction while it was 

 within the crater ; but when it had risen above 

 the edges, inclined towards the west, from the 

 action of a light wind, and, when it had risen 

 higher, dilated into an extended but thin vo- 

 lume. This smoke was white, and being im- 

 pelled to the side opposite to that in which I 

 was, did not prevent my seeing within the aper- 

 ture ; in which I can affirm I very distinctly 

 perceived a liquid ignited matter, which conti- 

 nually undulated, boiled, and rose and fell, with- 

 out spreading over the bottom. This certainly 

 was the melted lava, which had arisen to that 

 aperture from the bottom of the Etnean gulf. 



" The favourable circumstance of having this 

 aperture immediately under my view, induced 

 me to throw into it some large stones, by rolling 

 them down the steep declivity below me. These 

 stones, which were only large pieces of lava that 



