TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 665 



Lipari, August 30, 1888. 



My beak De. Johnston-Lavis, — I have your kind note of 22nd inst. and 

 ■will give you a short account of the strange doings of our old friend the crater of 

 Vulcano. 



On the 3rd inst. we had an outburst in the crater with stones, flames, thunder 

 (regular lightnings). It was strong enough to throw stones of considerable size to 

 the sides of the mountain. This lasted perhaps ten to fifteen minutes and then 

 ended. After some time we began to have, at the interval of every twenty to 

 thirty minutes, a great rush of thick smoke, and lasting some ten to twelve minutes 

 at a time. We had often seen such eruptions during the twelve to thirteen years I 

 have been on this island, and I hoped it would end like former eruptions. Towards 

 evening, however, these rushes of smoke, steam, and ashes (which used to be pro- 

 jected into the air to about twice the height of the mountain) had completely 

 ceased. As the night approached the leading fumarole (which was very active, 

 giving oflf an offensive smell for months before the event) had begun to show a 

 clear htghjlaine, much paler than the flames produced by the burning of wood, anct 

 somewhat greenish or bluish. This phenomenon, together with the sudden stopping 

 of the smoke, was evidently not a good omen. Consequentlj', I spent all the night 

 dressed on a sofa in the drawing-room. Towards morning I was overpowered by 

 sleep, and went to the little bedroom which looks towards the mountain, rested ou 

 the bed, and soon was sound asleep. Shortly afterwards I was awakened by a 

 tremendous din which can hardly be described. As I jumped up from my bed 

 I felt stones falling on the roof as hail — such cannonading going on — I understood 

 what was the matter — ran to the opposite room, where I had made my children 

 sleep that night. They were also up in consequence of an indescribable noise of 

 thunder, rush of gases, flames, falling of huge boulders, rocks, &c. T took them to 

 the drawing-room, but as soon as the door was opened a big stone red hot (all these 

 stones are quite red with heat) fell through the roof, ceiling, and floor a few yards 

 from us, smashing all, setting tire to everything. Now I took my children back 

 to the bedroom, which looks on to the verandah, and tried to gain the terrace by that 

 side. The house doors were shivering and shaking so that it was a diflicult matter 

 to open the doors. At last I succeeded, but before we were out in the verandah 

 another stone fell at our feet, was smashed to fragments, and burned the feet and 

 legs of my hoys. Now we passed through the verandah, regained the house at the 

 top of the stairs ; here another stone fell very near us (none of these stones were 

 less than 2 feet in diameter). This last stone (which is the fourth that struck 

 the house including the one that fell on the ceiling of my bedroom while in bed) 

 has nearly blocked our way out with the rubbish that it brought from the roof. 

 We passed through over the heap of rubbish and were now out in the open to the 

 north of the house. By this time (not many minutes after all) the whole place 

 was lighted up, woods, grass, buildings, hedges — all was on fire ; the huge boulders 

 and stones were literally raining everywhere about us — what confusion! Natali. 

 the faithful boy, had by this time come to the help of my little boys — we all 

 began to run to Vulcanello and away from the dreadful thundering mountain. All 

 the means of communication we possessed at Vulcano consisted in an old, half- 

 broken 20-loot boat, and a lighter, both of which the men in their panic and mad 

 despair had taken away with them, leaving us on the sands of Vulcanello. Towards 

 noon, however, boats of rescue reached us from Lipari, and we thus ended one of 

 the most eventful days of our life. How we escaped death I do not know. 



On revisiting the spot I saw the whole plains below the mountain, to the 

 distance of 1^ mile, specially the neighbourhood of the house and the men's 

 habitations, literally covered with boulders and rocks of all sizes, which had im- 

 bedded themselves in the ground to various depths. The most huge of them is near 

 the well of the house, which is not less than 10 yards in diameter, and is some 

 10 to 11 feet deep in the ground. This is about f of a mile from the crater. 

 Another, of nearly equal dimensions, is on the shore near the Quarantana at the 

 end of the bay of the Levante ! Rocks of 1 yard in diameter are as plentiful as can 

 be as far as the middle of Vulcanello, near the Punta Samossa ! We have to thank 

 God for going unhurt through this ' hail storm ' ! 



