ERUPTION OF SKAPTAR JOKUL. 



191 



and 100 feet deep, impregnating the air with nox- 

 ious vapours, and causing an extensive famine, by 

 depositing showers of ashes over the whole island, 

 and driving away the fish from the shores. During 

 this time it destroyed more than 20 villages, and 

 9000 human beings out of a population of 50,000. 

 The lava flowed in nearly opposite directions ; one 

 current being 50, and the other 40 miles in length. 

 The breadth of one was from 12 to 15 miles, that 

 of the other about 9. The depth of both ranged 

 from 100 to 600 feet. In 1737, the current of lava 

 from Vesuvius, which destroyed Torre del Greco 

 and ran into the sea, is supposed to have accumu- 

 lated more than 33,000,000 cubic feet; and in 1794, 

 another current was calculated to exceed 46,000,000 

 feet. Mount jEtna, which rises above 10,000 feet 

 in height, and embraces a circumference of 180 

 miles, is composed entirely of lavas, which appear 

 to have been emitted above the surface of the wa- 

 ter, and not under pressure. Some of the streams 

 of lava which have issued from it are 15 or 20 miles 

 in length, 4 or 5 broad, and from 50 to 100 feet in 

 thickness. The great current which destroyed Ca- 

 tania is estimated to contain 93,000,000 cubic feet. 

 This occurred in the year 1669. An earthquake 

 levelled to the ground all the houses in Nicolosi, a 

 town situated 20 miles from the summit of ^Etna, 

 and ten from the sea. Two gulfs then opened near 

 that town, from whence sand and scoria were 

 thrown out in such quantity, that in the course of 

 three or four months a double cone was formed, 

 called Monti Rossi. 450 feet high. In the plain of 

 St. Leo a fissure also opened, with a loud crash, of 

 an unknown depth, and ran in a tortuous course, 12 

 miles in length, to within a mile of the summit of 

 iEtna, giving out a most vivid light. Five other 

 parallel fissures of considerable length afterward 

 opened, and emitted smoke, and gave out bellowing 

 sounds, which were heard at a distance of 40 miles 



