ERUPTION OF VULCANO 71 



rushes of steam and ash, till the mighty column surged 

 upwards to a height of at least 1,000 feet above the edge 

 of the crater, and then spread out in a vast canopy of 

 cloud, shining lurid in the blinding light of the molten 

 lava which boiled in the crater below ; while on its 

 margin sheet-lightning in vivid flashes played incessantly. 

 Stones and bombs, red-hot, white-hot, looking like shoot- 

 ing stars in the darkness, were continually shot up, and 

 so high that they pierced the cloud canopy, and then, fall- 

 ing back in graceful curves, fell at first slowly, then faster, 

 and finally with fury, till they reached the sides of the 

 cone or the plain at its foot. The detonations grew 

 fainter, the rushes of steam ceased, and the eruption was 

 over as suddenly as it began. 



We were fortunate in this our first experience of an 

 active volcano. We had witnessed a paroxysmal erup- 

 tion, similar in type, differing only in magnitude and 

 duration from that of Vesuvius described by the younger 

 Pliny when Herculaneum and Pompeii were over- 

 whelmed. The next day we steamed away at 4 a.m. 

 for Stromboli "the lighthouse of the Mediterranean." 

 Always in a state of moderate activity, it illumines the 

 night with a sudden glow at irregular intervals of some 

 two to twenty minutes. It is also known as the " fisher- 

 men's weather-glass," and it was perhaps by studying the 

 changes in the character of its eruptions, or in the cloud 

 canopy which it produces, in connexion with the weather, 

 that King ^Eolus acquired his reputation as God of the 

 Winds. Scientific men were not so prodigal of their dis- 

 coveries in those days, and, like the Egyptian priests, 

 kept their secrets to themselves. 



Directly we landed on Stromboli we made for a farm- 

 house, and under its friendly pergola, a square, flat roof 

 of canes, vine-covered, we ate the rocky bread of Lipari, 

 which, for the sake of the wine, I now forgive. Then 



