74 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



shelter has ceased to exist for many centuries. A 

 hundred and twenty-four years before our era, a 

 current of lava, bursting forth about six miles from 

 the town, inundated the whole country lying to 

 the east of Catania, blocked up the harbour, and 

 passing over the banks changed the strand, which 

 was once so easy and safe of access, into an unap- 

 proachable rocky height. Fifteen hundred years 

 afterwards namely, in 1381 another stream fol- 

 lowed nearly the same direction, destroying the rich 

 plantations of olive trees which had shot up on the 

 old lava, and terminating its havoc by almost blocking 

 up the little harbour of Ognina at about three miles' 

 distance from Catania; while two other streams, 

 very nearly parallel to the preceding one, enclosed 

 the town to the west and north. One of these 

 streams is referred back to the year 527 before 

 our era; but this stream is of inconsiderable extent, 

 and terminates within the harbour. The other 

 stream dates no further back than the year 1669, 

 an epoch which is well known to every Sicilian, 

 and which recalls one of the most formidable erup- 

 tions of which we have any record. After having 

 broken down a large extent of wall, it penetrated 

 into the town, throwing into the very midst of the 

 most populous districts vast masses of lava, which 

 are worked in the present day as quarries. 



Catania is situated at the southern extremity of 

 the mountain side in whose centre lies the cone of 

 the crater, and which almost entirely occupies a vast 

 and nearly circular plain, bordered to the east by 

 the sea, and to the south by the plain of Catania, 



