018 
^'Vr'N A. 
various forms and all magnitudes, from several yards in dianiefer, 
down to tbe smallest pebble, which, according to their weight and 
bulk, ascend from two hundred to one thousand feet. The two fore*» 
mentioned craters, or rather double crater, the lowest of the row 
down the mountain, formed the principal object of this awful and 
magnificent scene — they were the only craters which did not seem to 
labour. Their joint emissions had encompassed them with a black 
oblong hill of ashes and lava stones; thirty yards above the top of 
which, their mingling flames furiously ascended, in one immense blaze, 
which seemed one hundred yards in breadth. Amidst this blaze, 
vast showers of rocks, rising and falling, w'ere continually passing 
each other. About the middle of the whole line of craters was situ- 
ated one, which laboured the most, and made the loudest, the hea- 
viest, the highest, and the most dangerous discharges ; from the 
rocks of which, our party twice narrowly escaped, one or two of very 
considerable size falling within a pace of us ; — I think the lava 
flowed only from a few of the chief craters, particularly the double one. 
During the emissions of rock and flame, the boiling matter was seen 
in slow undulating waves, issuing through the sides, close to the, 
bottom of the black hills of ashes. The double crater appeared 
completely isolated by the lava of others. Just below this, all the 
lavas uniting, formed one grand stream of various breadths, from 
half a mile to fifty yards, which, leaving the fir-wood, pursued its 
destructive course dowm a rocky part of the mountain, interspersed 
w ith oaks ; until, about five miles below the double crater, it entered 
some vineyards, after dividing into two branches, the principal one 
of which, advancing a mile farther, directly threatened the house of 
baron Corri. Within two hundred yards of this house, it entered a 
hollow' way, w'hich it was hoped would turn its course; but, going 
on, according to the direction of the impelling fluid behind, its loose 
rocks rolling off the main body, soon filled up the small ravine, and 
formed a causeway for itself to pass. The other branch took the 
direction of Lingua Grossa, and arrived very near the baron Cag- 
Mone’s house, whose inhabitants, as well as those of the town, were 
trembling for their property, when the eruption ceased. 
“ The stream sometimes branched off* and joined again, forming 
islands as it flowed along. Sometimes its banks were formed by the 
sides of ravines ; hut where the country was open, it formed its own, 
which from the porous nature of the lava imbibed the cool air, and 
soon hardened into black and lofty hanks of many feet in thickness. 
It gradually thickened in advancing, until about four miles from the 
crater, when it began to assume the appearance of a vast rugged 
mound of black rocks, or stones and cinders, moving almost imper- 
ceptibly along. By daylight, the general appearance of this amazing 
stream, or moving mound, was black, and might be compared to a 
lorsg tract of ploughed ground, moving and smoking along, raised on 
banks from fifteen to forty feet high. The end of it, however, presented 
a bold front of vivid fire, about fifteen or sixteen feet high, and eighty 
paces in extent. While it moved forward in -a body, the loose stones 
and cinders presenting less resistance to the stream behind, impelled 
in a continual succession to the top, rolled cracking down its rough 
