THE COASTS OF SICILY. 107 



which soon filled up the base of the crater and closed 

 the mouths, which for four months and a half had 

 hurled forth terror and devastation. Such was this 

 mournfully celebrated eruption, which covered about 

 fifty square miles with a stratum of thick lava which 

 at certain points extended to a depth of 100 feet, 

 and which after threatening utterly to annihilate 

 Catania, had destroyed the habitations of 27,000 

 persons.* 



Even at the present day, we can trace on the 

 surface of the soil the remains of those terrible phe- 

 noniena which occurred nearly 200 years ago. We 

 have endeavoured in the preceding pages to describe 

 the cheire which issues from the Monti Rossi, and 

 if time had permitted, we might have found, as 

 Recupero has done, the fifteen accessory mouths 

 which mark, over a space of about 1500 yards, the di- 

 rection of these subterranean forces. We might also 

 have penetrated into the upper portion of that terrific 

 fissure, from which was ejected the enormous quan- 

 tity of sand which covered a space of nearly nine 

 square miles to a depth of three or four feet, and 

 thus spread sterility as far as the Calabrian district. 

 Finally we might have descended into that Grotta 

 Dfi Palombi, which through the exertions of Doctor 

 Mario Gemellaro, may in the present day be ex- 

 plored to a depth of more than 200 feet, where the 

 traveller may contemplate one of the still yawning 

 chasms which has been produced by the dislocation of 

 the ancient strata. 



* Narrative of the Earl of Winchelsea as given by Recupero. 



