i879-] 
during the Last Ten Years . 
467 
wards the end of the year (December 18th) a deep fissure 
opened in the floor of the crater, at the bottom of which 
molten lava could be seen. The surging liquid mass after- 
wards rose to the top of the fissure, and a cone was thrown 
up over the point of greatest activity. From this lava 
flowed in small quantities and at intervals during 1876, 
1877, and 1 878. It overspread, and gradually raised, the 
floor of the crater, until, on November 18th, 1878, it rose 
to the edge of the lowest portion of the rim of the crater 
on the north-west side of the mountain, and ran down the 
great cone towards the Atrio del Cavallo. The flow soon 
ceased, but the new cone continued to exhibit considerable 
dynamic activity, and is still ejecting scoriae and evolving 
volumes of steam. 
When the writer visited the scene of the new eruption, 
a few weeks after its commencement (December 29th, 
1878), the cone exhibited considerable adtivity. We as- 
cended with a guide from Resina, and the ascent thence to 
the foot of the cone occupied an hour and three-quarters, 
while that of the cone itself — which slopes at an angle of 
32 0 , and is composed of loose ashes — occupied fifty-five 
minutes. The cone on the north side presented precisely 
the same aspedt as in 1875. On arriving at the rim of the 
crater we turned to the west, until we came to a portion 
which had been broken down by the recent flow of lava. 
Near this north-western extremity of the rim we turned 
aside, and descended to the floor of the crater by a very 
steep path. At the bottom of the crater we at once found 
ourselves upon the new lava, which in many places was 
red-hot a few feet beneath the surface. Dense fumes of 
hydrochloric acid escaped from fissures in the lava nearest 
to the new cone, and certain large cavernous places in the 
lava were coated with brilliant red and yellow incrustations 
of sesquichloride of iron — often erroneously described as 
sulphur. Masses of nearly white porous lava were some- 
times found near the cone. These had probably been sub- 
mitted to the adtion of hydrochloric acid at a high 
temperature, which had removed the iron from the mass in 
the form of chloride. Such decomposed masses consist 
almost entirely of silicates of lime and alumina : they may 
be artificially produced by passing hydrochloric acid over 
volcanic scoriae heated to redness in a porcelain tube. 
Palmieri has detedted chloride of calcium and chloride of 
lithium among the products of the last eruption ; also 
boracic acid and various sulphates. In specimens collected 
in December we have found, among other substances, chloride 
