28 ETNA. [Ch. XXVI. 



ice and snow, is instantly absorbed by the porous lava ; and 

 sucli is the dearth of springs, that the herdsman is compelled 

 to supply his flocks, during the hot season, from stores of 

 snow laid up in hollows of the mountain during winter. 



Late in the autumn, when the sun is shining, both on the 

 higher and lower parts of Etna, and on every other part of 

 Sicily, clouds of fleecy vapour often fill the Yal del Bove, and 

 are sometimes partially dispersed along the face of the lofty 

 precipices, causing the black outlines of the dikes to stand 



CH 



S^ 



mi 



begin to rise^ the changes of scene are varied in the highest 

 degree, different rocks being nnveiled and hidden by turns, 



of Etna often breaking through the clouds 



tie summifc of Etna often breaking 



moment with its dazzling snows, and being then 



as 



suddenly withdrawn from the view. 



I have alluded to the streams 



Eruptions of 1811 and 1819— 

 of lava which were poured forth in 1811 and 1819. Gem- 



mellaro, who witnessed these eruptions, informs us that the 

 great crater in 1811 first testified by its loud detonations, 

 that a column of lava had ascended to near the summit of 

 the mountain. A violent shock was then felt, and a stream 

 broke out from the side of the cone, at no great distance 

 from its apex. Shortly after this had ceased to flow, a 

 second stream burst forth at another opening, considerably 

 below the first; then a third still lower, and so on till seven 

 different issues had been thus successively formed, all lying 

 upon the same straight Ime. It has been supposed that 

 this line was a perpendicular rent in the internal framework 

 of the mountain, which rent was probably not produced at 

 one shock, but prolonged successively downwards, by the 

 weight, pressure^ and intense heat of the internal column 

 of lava, as its surface subsided by gradual discharge through 

 each vent.^ 



In 1819 three large mouths or caverns opened very near 

 those which were formed in the eruptions of 1811, from 

 which flames, red-hot cinders, and sand were thrown up with 

 loud explosions. A few minutes afterwards another mouth 

 opened below, from which flames and smoke issued 5 and 



* Scropc on Volcanos, p. ICO. 





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