Ascent of Mr. Etna, February, 1832. 3 
the inhabitants, when beholding so tremendous a deluge of fire ad- 
vancing upon their fair possessions, burying every trace of cultivated 
fields, of houses, churches and spires, climbing the walls of their 
city and finally marching over its ruins to invade the sea itself. The 
sea yields to this novel attack of her enemy under her own fluid form, 
and volumes of flames and clouds of vapor arise from this new war 
of elements. Who can figure to himself the sounds and sights and 
other terrific accompaniments of such an event; the constant deto- 
nations of the lava, drowned from time to time, by the louder thunder 
of the mountain, the lurid canopy of clouds glowing with the fires 
below, and the most vivid lightnings of heaven, paled by the intenser 
glare of earth? Surely, the ignorant peasantry of Etna, may be for- 
given the superstition which ascribes calamities so dreadful, to the im- 
mediate agency of the most powerful and terrible beings. 
We almost stumbled upon Nicolosi before we saw it. The hou- 
ses of the village are low, as if crouching to avoid some impending 
danger, and it was easy to confound their tiled roofs, with the ground 
which had been burnt to a similar color in the hotter furnace of the 
volcano. They are built thus low from fear of earthquakes. Ab- 
bate soon guided us into the courtyard of one of these humble ten- 
ements. Passing through the kitchen we found one large room fur- 
nished with just enough beds for our party, and such beds too as we 
could leave without regret, at any hour however early. Mr. Mario 
Gemmellaro occupied the house adjoining, and we repaired to him for 
the purpose of getting the keys of the English house and of pur- 
chasing some of his charts and views of Etna. 
He was.a bluff, hearty man, whose broad face and florid complex- 
ion were the more striking, from their contrast with the pallid features 
of most of his countrymen. For many years he has been a fear- 
less observer of the terrific phenomena of Etna, and has made them 
the subject of several published pamphlets. We sat awhile, and con- 
versation turning upon the numerous eruptions from the sides of the 
mountain, he said he had incontestable evidence, that they do not 
proceed directly from the center of the earth or of the volcanic force 
by separate tubes, but that the Java arises in the grand central and 
original funnel, and that by the pressure of the immense column of 
fluid, a passage is forced in between the conical caps, of which the 
mountain by repeated eruptions has been gradually formed. By 
this passage the lava flows down underneath the crust, until it makes 
or finds openings through it, and by these, discharges itself into the air. 
