WHICH  BATE  CONSOLIDATED  ON  STEEP  SLOPES. 
721 
The  three  published  accounts  of  the  eruption,  which  were  presented  to  me  by  their 
authors,  are  as  follows : — 
1st.  Sunto  del  Giornale  della  eruzione  dell’  Etna  del  1852,  del  Dottore  Giuseppe 
Gemmellaeo.  Catania  1853. 
2ndly.  Sull’  eruzione  presente  dell’  Etna  di  Feancesco  Toenabene,  Professore  di  Bota- 
nica,  &c.  Napoli  1852.  Parte  1^  e 2^^ 
3rdly.  Eelazione  della  grandiosa  eruzione  Etnea  della  notte  del  20  al  21  Agosto  1852, 
di  Giuseppe  Antonio  Meecueio.  Palermo  1853. 
The  first  of  these  writers.  Dr.  Giuseppe  Gemmellaeo,  visited  the  Val  del  Bove  during 
the  continuance  of  the  eruption,  and  I had  frequent  opportunities  of  profiting  by  his 
instructions  and  courteous  explanations  of  what  he  saw. 
The  eruption  began  in  the  night  of  August  20,  1852,  by  the  violent  shaking  of  the 
central  nucleus  of  Etna.  Some  travellers  who  were  passing  the  Piano  del  Lago,  on  their 
way  to  the  Casa  Inglese,  saw  clouds  of  scoriae  thrown  up  from  the  highest  crater.  The 
Balzo  di  Trifoghetto,  or  the  great  precipice  which  forms  the  head  of  the  Val  del  Bove, 
was  rent  so  that  in  the  course  of  that  first  night  and  the  next  day  there  were  many 
openings,  some  accounts  say  seventeen,  from  one  of  which  (No.  1 Map,  Plate  L.),  larger 
than  the  rest,  not  far  below  the  Torre  del  Filosofo,  and  between  the  Serra  Giannicola 
Grande  and  the  Serra  Giannicola  Piccola,  scoriae  were  ejected.  According  to  some  of 
the  narratives,  a small  quantity  of  lava  issued  from  this  point. 
[Dr.  Giuseppe  Gemmellaeo,  in  the  small  map  appended  to  his  valuable  memoir  above 
cited,  has  placed  the  upper  mouth  (No.  1 Map,  Plate  L.),  as  well  as  the  two  craters 
Nos.  2 and  3 ib.,  to  the  south,  instead  of  to  the  north  of  the  Serra  Giannicola  Grande. 
Having  with  me  in  1858  S.  v.  Walteeshausen’s  map,  which  was  not  published  when 
Dr.  G.  Gemmellaeo  wrote,  and  my  guide,  Angelo  Caebonaeo  of  Nicolosi,  having  accom- 
panied travellers  to  the  mountain  on  the  night  of  the  21st  of  August,  1 was  able  to  ascer- 
tain and  lay  down  more  exactly  the  site  of  these  three  points,  though  by  no  means  with 
trigonometrical  accuracy.  The  two  cones  and  craters  (2  and  3)  lie  north  of  the  eastern 
extremity  or  base  of  the  Serra  Giannicola  Grande.  They  were  thrown  up  on  the  line 
of  a great  fissure,  which  opened  the  day  after  the  eruption  began,  and  are  still  very  con- 
spicuous objects  at  the  head  of  the  Val  del  Bove,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  outline  of  their 
forms,  given  in  two  sketches  in  the  next  page,  h,  c,  figs.  7 and  8,  taken  by  me  September 
25^  1858,  when,  in  consequence  of  hea’v^  rain  which  had  fallen  the  day  before,  the  fume- 
roles  were  so  numerous  that  the  cones  had  almost  the  appearance  of  being  still  in  erup- 
tion. 
The  bird’s-eye  Hew,  fig.  8,  obtained  by  looking  down  into  the  Val  del  Bove  from  the 
edge  of  the  precipice,  immediately  below  the  Torre  del  Filosofo,  will  convey  to  the 
reader  a tolerably  correct  idea  of  the  position  of  the  two  craters,  as  seen  from  above, 
as  also  of  the  course  of  the  lavas  issuing  from  the  base  of  the  Centenario,  and  flowing 
towards  Milo  and  Zafarana. 
5 B 2 
