( '3S ) 



obferved in the produds of ot^ier burning 

 mountains. 



About a mile and a half beyond the lava 

 now defcribed, proceeding ftill towards the 

 north, we find a fecond, not in globes, but 

 in an ample current, which falls like a cata- 

 ract into the fea. It is of a petrofiliceous 

 bafe, has the colour of iron, is filiceous, ox 

 rather vitreous in the fracture, and full of 

 fhoerlaceous cryflallizations. Whoever has 

 feen lavas which have lately iiTued from the 

 mouth of a volcano, would imagine this of 

 extremely recent date. On the furface, it 

 preferves that fhining afpedil:, that frefhnefs, 

 which is peculiar to lavas that have not yet 

 been expofed to the influences of the atmo- 

 fphere. The fpecimens of it which I de- 

 tached, might be taken for that fcoria of 

 iron which we find in the fhops wbere that 

 metal is fabricated. I have in my ppfleffion 

 fome pieces of the lava which v/as tbrowa 

 from the higheft crater of Etna, in 1787, 

 ■which I colleded on the fpot, and. have de- 



(cribe4 



