192 



ERUPTION OF MTNA. 



After overflowing 14 towns and villages, ^ome of 

 them having a population of between 3000 and 4000 

 inhabitants, the lava at length arrived at the walls 

 of Catania. These had been raised on purpose to 

 protect the city; but the burning flood accumulated 

 till it rose to the top of the rampart, which was 60 

 feet in height, and then it fell in a fiery cascade and 

 overwhelmed part of the city. Excavations still 

 show the wall standing, and the lava curling over 

 it as if in the very act of falling. After coursing 

 15 miles farther, it entered the sea in a stream 600 

 yards broad and 40 feet deep. While moving on, 

 Ferrara describes its surface as appearing like a 

 mass of solid rock, and its mode of advancement 

 was by the occasional cracking or Assuring of the 

 solid walls. A gentleman of Catania, desiring tc 

 secure the city from the approach of the threaten- 

 ing torrent, went out with a party of 50 men, armed 

 with iron hooks and crows. They broke open one 

 of the solid walls which flanked the current, and 

 immediately there issued forth a stream of melted 

 matter, which took the direction of Palermo ; but 

 the inhabitants of that town, being alarmed for their 

 safety, took up arms and put a stop to farther oper- 

 ations. 



As a farther illustration of the solidity of the walls 

 of an advancing lava stream, Recupero states that, 

 in the year 1766, while standing on a small hill to 

 behold the slow and gradual approach of a lava cur- 

 rent two miles and a half broad, two small threads 

 of liquid matter, issuing from a crevice, detached 

 themselves from the main stream and ran rapidly 

 towards the hill. He and his guide had just time to 

 escape, when they saw the hill, which was 50 feet 

 high, surrounded, and in fifteen minutes melted 

 down into the burning mass so as to flow on with 

 it. 



In the year 1538, the town of Tripergola, near 

 Puzzuoli, was destroyed by an eruption, which 



