500 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[August 2, 1886. 



he has yet succeeded in presenting with a few skilful strokes 

 the solemn grandeur of ancient Etna, the scene of the 

 struggles of tiie buried giant T^'phieus. He portrays the 

 snowy mountain as " the pillar of the heavens, the nurse of 

 eternal snows, hiding within deep caverns the fountains of 

 nnapproachable fire : by day a column of eddying smoke, 

 by night a bright and ruddy flame, while masses of burning 

 rock roll ever with loud uproar into the sea." 



The cone of Etna rises to more than twice the height of 

 Mount Vesuvius. Of old, indeed, the Sicilians assigned to 

 their mountain a height not falling very fxr short of that 

 of the grandest of the Alpine mountains. But in ISl."), 

 Captain (the late Admiral) Smyth ascertained by a axrel'ul 

 series of trigonometrical observations that the true height of 

 the mountain is 10,874 feet. The Catanians were indignant 

 that a young, and at that time undistinguished. Englishman 

 should have ventured to deprive their mountain of nearly 

 2,000 feet of the height which had baen assigned to it by 

 their own observer Eecupero, and they refused to accept 

 the new measurement. Nine years later, however, Sir John 

 Herschel from barometrical observations estimated the 

 mountain's height at 10,872rj feet. The close agreement 

 between the two results was spoken of by Herschel — Lyell 

 tells us — as a " happy accident ; " but, as Dr. Wollaston 

 remarked, " it was one of tho.se accidents which would not 

 have happened to two fools." 



The figure of Etna is a somewhat flattened cone, which 

 would be very .symmetrical were it not that on the eastern 

 side it is broken by a deep valley called the Val del Bove, 

 •which runs nearly to the summit of the mountain, and 

 descending half-way down its banks is connected with a 

 second and narrower valley, called the Val di Colonna. 

 The cone is divided into three regions called the desert, the 

 woody, and the fertile regions. The first of these is a waste 

 of lava and scoriie, from the centre of which uprises the 

 great cone. The woody region encircles the desert land to 

 a width of six or seven miles. Over this region oaks, pines, 

 and chestnut trees grow luxuriantly, while here and there 

 are to be seen groves of cork and beech. Surrounding the 

 woody region is a delightful and well-cultivated country 

 lying upon the outskirts of the mountain and formiug the 

 fertile region. This part of Etna is well inhabited, and 

 thickly covered with olives, vines, and fruit trees. One of 

 the most singular peculiarities of the mountain is the jireva- 

 lence over its Hanks of a multitude of minor cones, nearly 

 a hundred of which are to be seen in various parts of the 

 woody and fertile regions. Of these Sir Charles Lyell 

 remarks that, " although they ajipear but trifling irregulari- 

 ties when viewed from a distance as subordinate parts of so 

 imposing and colo.ssal a mountain, they would, nevertheless, 

 be deemed hills of considerable magnitude in almost any 

 other region." 



It has been calculated that the circumference of the cone 

 is fully eighty-seven English miles, but that the whole 

 district over which the lava extends has nearly twice that 

 circuit. 



Of the earlier eruptions cf Mount Etna we have not 

 received very full oi- satisfactory records. It is related that 

 in 1.537 the principal cone, which had been .320 feet high, 

 was swallowed up within the hollow depths of the mountain. 

 And again in 169;), during the course of an earthquake 

 which shook the whole of Sicily and destroyed no fewer 

 than G0,000 persons, the mountain lost a large portion of its 

 height, insomuch that, according to Boccone, it could not 

 be seen from several parts of the Valdemone, whence it had 

 before been clearly visible. Minor cones upon the flanks 

 of the mountain were diminished in height during other 

 outbursts in a different manner. Thus in the great eruption 

 of lilt Monte Peluso was reduced to two-thirds of its 



former height by a vast lava stream, which encircled it on 

 every side. Yet, though another current has recently taken 

 the same cour.se, the height of this minor mountain is still 

 three or four hundred feet. There is also, says Sir Charles 

 Lyell, "a cone called Monte Nucilla, near Nicolosi, round 

 the base of which .successive currents have flowed, and 

 showers of ashes have fallen, since the time of history, till 

 at last, during an eruption in 1536, the surrounding plain 

 was so raised that the top of the cone alone was left pro- 

 jecting above the general level." 



But the first eruption of which we have complete and 

 authentic records is the one which occurred in the year 

 1669. An earthquake had taken place by which Nicolosi, a 

 town situated about twenty miles from the summit of Etna, 

 was levelled to the ground. Near the site of the destroyed 

 town two gulfs opened soon after, and from these gulfs such 

 enormous quantities of sand and scoria; were thrown out 

 that a mountain having a double peak was formed in less 

 than four months. But, remarkable as was the evidence 

 thus afforded of the energy of the volcanic action which 

 was at work beneath the flames of the mountain, a yet more 

 striking event presently attracted the attention of the alarmed 

 inhabitants of the neighbouring country. On a sudden, and 

 with a crash which resounded for miles aiound, a fissure, 

 twelve miles in length, opened along the flanks of the dis- 

 turbed mountain. The fissure extended nearly to the summit 

 of Etna. It was very deep — how deep is unknown — but 

 only six feet in width. Along its whole length there was 

 emitted a most vivid light. Then, after a brief interval, five 

 similar fissures opened one after another, emitting enormous 

 volumes of smoke, and giving vent to bellowing sounds 

 which could be heard at a distance of more than forty miles. 



At length the eruption commenced in earnest. The 

 volume of lava which was poured forth was greater than any 

 that has ever been known to flow from the mountain during 

 liistorical times. According to the estimate of Ferrara, no 

 less than 140 millions of cubic yards of lava were poured 

 down the sides of the mountain. The current, after melt- 

 ing down the foundations of a hill called Mompiliere, over- 

 flowed no fewer than fourteen towns and villages, some of 

 which had as man}' as three thousand and four thousand in- 

 habitants. Alarmed at the progress of the sea of lava which 

 threatened to overwhelm their city, the Catanians upreared 

 a rampart of enormous strength and sixty feet in height. 

 So stoutly was this bulwark established that the lava was 

 unable to break it or to burn it down. The molten sea gra- 

 dually accumulated, until at length it ro.se above the summit 

 of the rampart, from which it poured in a fiery cascade, and 

 destroyed the nearer part of the city. " The wall was not 

 thrown down, however," saj's Sir Charles Lyell, " but was 

 discovered long afterwards by excavations made in the rock 

 by the Pi-ince of Biscari, so that the traveller m.ay now see 

 the .solid lava curling over the top of the rampart as if still 

 in the very act of falling. The current had performed a 

 course of fifteen miles before it entered the sei, where it was 

 still 600 yards broad and 40 feet deep. It covered some 

 territories in the environs of Catania, which had never 

 before been visited by the lavas of Etna. While moving 

 on, its surface was in general a mass of solid rock, and its 

 mode of advancing, as is usual with lava streams, was by 

 the occasional Assuring of the solid walls. A gentleman of 

 Catania, named Pappalardo, desiring to secure the city from 

 the approach of the threatening torrent, went out with a 

 party of fifty men whom he had dressed in skins to protect 

 them from the heat, and armed with iron crows and hooks. 

 They broke open one of the solid walls which flanked the 

 current near Belpasso, and immediately forth issued .a 

 rivulet of melted matter which took the direction of 

 Paterno ; but the inhabitants of that town, being alarmed 



