22 



ETNA. 



[Ch. XXVI. 



appears to indicate that the fissure was filled to a certain 

 height with incandescent lava, probably to the height of 



an 



orifice not far from Monti Rossi, which at that time opened 



m 



and poured out a lava current. When the melted matter 

 such a rent has cooled, it must become a solid wall or dil 

 intersecting the older rocks of which the mountain is com- 

 posed; similar rents have been observed during subsequent 

 eruptions, as in 1832, when they radiated in various directions 

 from the centre of the volcano. It has been remarked by M 

 Elie de Beaumont, that such star-shaped fractures may 

 indicate a slight upheaval of the whole of Etna. They may 



Fi^ 80. 





Minor, cones on the flanks of Etna. 



1. Monti Rossi, Eear Nicolosi, formed in 1GG9. 



2. ]Monpileri 



be the signs of the stretching of the mass^ which may thus 

 he raised gradually by a force from below.^ 



The lava current of 1669, before alluded to, soon reached 



in its course a minoi 



Monpil 



which it entered a subterranean grotto, comnmnicating with 



common 



._... ... .... .^ of 



Etna. Here it appears to have melted down some of the 

 vaulted foundations of the cone, so that the whole of that hill 

 became slightly depressed and traversed bj numerous open 

 fissures. 



Tart of Catania destroyed. — The lava, after overflowing 

 fourteen towns and villages, some having a populatiou of 



r 



^ Mem. pour servir, &c., toni. iv. p. IIG. 



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