t is 3 
little hill covered with vines, which belonged to the 
jefuits, and, as is well attefted, was undermined by 
the lava in the year 1669, and tranfported half a 
mile from the place where it flood, without having 
damaged the vines. 
In great eruptions of Etna, the fame fort of lighten- 
ing, as defcribed in my account of the lafl eruption 
of Vefuvius, has been frequently feen to iffue from 
the fmoak of its great crater. The ancients took 
notice of the fame phaenomenon, for Seneca (lib. ii. 
QuaEfl. Nat.) fays, — “ JEtna aliquando multo igne 
abundavit, ingentem vim arenae urentis effudit, 
“ involutus eft dies pulvere, populofque fubita nox 
44 terruit, illo tempore aiunt plurima juijfe tonitrua et 
“ fulmina” 
Till the year 252 of Chrift, the chronological ac- 
counts of the eruptions of Etna are very imperfedt ; 
but as the veil of St. Agatha was in that year firft 
oppofed to check the violence of the torrents of 
lava, and has ever fince been produced at the time 
of great eruptions, the miracles attributed to its in- 
fluence having been carefully recorded by the priefts, 
have at leaft preferved the dates of fuch eruptions. The 
relicks of St. Januarius have rendered the fame fer- 
vice to the lovers of natural hiftory, by recording the 
great eruptions of Vefuvius. I find, by the dates of 
the eruptions of Etna, that it is as irregular and un- 
certain in its operations as Vefuvius. The laft eruption 
was in 1766. 
On our return from Meflina to Naples, we were 
becalmed three days in the midftof the Lipari lflands, 
by which we had an opportunity of feeing that they 
■have all been evidently formed by explofion ; one of 
them, 
