jETNA. 
613 
Carrera, before referred to, relates that he was personally witness to 
a dreadful eruption, which commenced on the tenth of Deceniber, 
1.064, and continued to blaze incessantly, though with some occasional 
abatements of violence, till the end of the month of May, 167B. 
But the most formidable conflagration was that of 1669, which has 
been minutely described in the Philosophical Transactions, (No. 51,) 
Abridg'. vol. ii. For eighteen days previous to the eventful crisis, the 
sky was covered with dark clouds, and the atmosphere agitated by 
thunder and lightning. Many of the houses were overturned by 
earthquakes in the village of Nicoiosi, and the rest abandoned by 
their inhabitants. The crater on the summit exhibited, for a long time', 
extraordinary signs of commotion ; and the islands oi^ Stromboli 
and -Volcano indicated the approaching catastroplm. On the 8tii 
of March, the ^atmosphere darkened over the village of La Pedara 
and its vicinity. On the llth, a chasm of some miles in length, and 
five or six feet wide, was opened on the eastern side of the mountain, 
about twenty miles distant from the old mouth, and ten miles 
from Catania. On the following night a new cliasm was formed on 
the very spot where Monte Russo now stands. Several other chasms 
also appeared in different places at a considerable distance, four of 
them towards the southward side ; and from all of them issued 
immense quantities of .smoke, accompanied with tremendous thun- 
der, and alarming earthquakes. From the principal chasm, flakes of 
a dark earth-coloured spongy matter proceeded, and a vast stream 
of lava, which flowed towards the hike La Hordia, six miles from 
Montpellier!, desolating fields and villages in its progress. On the 
following day it proceeded to the territory called Mai Passo, and 
ill twenty hours depopulated and wasted it. After this it advanced 
in a new direction upon Montpellier!, committing similar ravages. 
In some places this tremendous stream of burning lava acquired the 
breadth of two miles, and extended to Mazzalucia. A new' and 
intense opening appeared on the 23d of the montli, which produced 
a hill of stones, sand, and ashes, with two summits, two miles in cir- 
cumference, and a hundred and fifty paces in height. This new 
mountain continued to pour forth ashes for three months, covering 
the adjacent country to the distance of fifieen miles. Some of these 
ashes are said to have been borne along by the wind as far as Messina, 
Calabria, and other places. Early in the morning of the 25th of 
March, the whole mountain of jEtiia w'as agitated by an earthquake; 
the highest crater fell into the focus of the volcano, and on the spot 
where it previously appeared, nothing was to be seen but a wide and 
deep gulf, upwards of a mile in extent, from which large masses of 
stones and ashes were continually discharged, and amongst these the 
celebrated block of lava on Mount Triiinento. The torrent of lava 
now flowed towards Catania witli renewed force and noise, accom- 
panied by earthquakes and other alarming symptoms. The walls 
were overflowed, and the gardens belonging to the Benedictine convent 
utterly desolated. From this spot it divided into several streams, 
and passed into the ocean, to the distance, according to the earl of 
Wincbelsea's account, transmitted to the Eiiglish court, of six hun- 
dred yards, and to the extent of a mile in breadth. In the 'saiiie 
