The Return. 
31 
loose ash and lapilli and drove it against us with such force that we 
were compelled to cover our heads with our coats to protect our faces. 
We gave up the ascent to the crater and made the descent, which was as 
easy as the ascent was difficult. Reaching the Porto di Levante we shel¬ 
tered ourselves as best we could from the wind and rain till toward even¬ 
ing, when the violence of the storm abated and we made our way to 
Lipari by dint of hard rowing in a heavy sea. 
On the following day with our faces still toward Volcano we took our 
departure from Lipari on the little mail steamer from Messina, which 
had again cast anchor in the harbor. After the volcano had almost van¬ 
ished from sight, we stretched ourselves on the deck under the bright 
sun. Rising some moments after I noticed that my clothes were being 
covered by the fine liparite ash of the mountain which was borne to us 
by the wind. Spreading a paper on the deck we were able to collect a 
considerable quantity of the material. Thus we bid our adieu to Vol¬ 
cano. 
Some five months. later a party from the Geologists’ Association of 
London visited the island under the guidance of Dr. Johnston-Lavis. 
They succeeded in reaching the crater’s edge. They saw the inner slop¬ 
ing walls of the crater to be made up of ash with scattered “ bread- 
crust” bombs of all sizes. In the bottom were conical depressions which 
emitted no steam between eruptions. Explosions at intervals of five 
minutes to half an hour would raise the whole or part of the bottom in a 
vast cloud, such as we had observed, estimated to attain to a height of 
8,000 feet. (Proc. Geologists’ Association XI, p. 389.) 
It is interesting in this connection to recount certain accidents which 
have happened to the telegraph cable between Lipari and Capo Melazzo 
in Sicily. This cable passes quite near Volcano. On the 21st and 22nd 
of November, 1888, a rupture occurred near Volcano and the cable was 
buried. Again on March 30th, 1889, a less serious break, and again on 
September 11, 1889, a more serious one occurred. These facts point to 
the formation of a submarine vent quite near Vulcano. 
University of Wisconsin , June 2 , 1892. 
