JETNA. 
647 - 
has been described by Spallanzani. The stream of lava, on this 
occasii>n, from the great crater, was three miles long, with ditFering 
breadth, in some places a quarter of a mile, in others one-third, or 
even more, varying also in depth from six to eighteen feet. Its course 
was westerly, and its effervescence violent. 
The most recent eruption took place in the month of March, 1809. 
A very interesting and minute account was transmitted at the time 
in a letter from a British officer in Sicily, to his friends in Scotland ; 
which our rea'ders will no doubt deem worthy of insertion. It is dated 
Messina, April 25th, 1809, and proceeds thus : — 
“ On the morning of the 27th of March, 1809, about seven o’clock, 
advices of an eruption of iEtna were conveyed hither, (Messina,) l)y a 
very sw'ift courser, a cloud of black ashes from the mountain-top, 
which is fifty miles distant in a straight line. These ashes, borne on a 
hard gale of wind, show'ered into the, town in such quantities, that 
even cart loads might have been collected from the streets and house- 
tops. They resembled gunpowder; so much, indeed, that an Irish 
soldier in the citadel called out, “ Blood and turf! the wind has forced 
open the magazine doors, and there’s all the powder blowing about 
the barracks !” 
“ Soon after day-light, an awTul bellowing and horizontal shaking 
of the mountain excited a general alarm among the inhabitants of its 
vast regions. Uncertain where the calamity might fall, many deserted 
their houses. This shock was immediately succeeded by a furious 
eruption of ashes from the great crater, w hich formed immense clouds, 
and covered an amazing extent of country. So violent was the dis- 
charge, that, in spite of the gale, a vast quantity overspread the 
country many miles to windward ^f the spot whence they issued. 
“ On the evening of the same day, an eruption of lava took place 
at a short' distance below, whose terrible streams flowed down the 
mountain about three miles, and then divided into two branches. 
This volcano soon ceased burning, and another broke out next day 
with greater fury than the former, about five miles low'er down, at a 
place called Monte Negro. This one displayed three vast columns of 
flame and smoke, and its lava extended, in a few*^ days, across the 
woody region, to the distance of three or four leagues. Hitherto w'e 
have heard of no guide bold enough to conduct the curious traveller 
as far as either of these eruptions, because of the vast and deceitful 
heaps of snow and ashes scattered about the two upper regions of 
the mountain ; nor has any person, I believe, been yet so rash as to 
ascend higher than one which broke out two hours after the first 
alarm, about twelve miles below Monte Negro, and eight west of Lin- 
gua Grossa, a town on the north-east side, near the foot of ^tna. 
Tt^is eruption has opened a row of craters, within a space of about 
two miles, forming with the other an irregular line running m a 
norlh-east direction from the top of the mountain. 
“ From the dark bosom of a wood of tall firs and huge oaks, 
spread over steep craggy hills and close valleys, conceive twelve 
craters or mouths, two unceasingly, and the rest at intervals, with a 
noise like a tremendous chorus of several thousand cannons, muskets, 
and sky-rockets, discharging flame, and showers of burning rocks of 
