124 ON CERTAIN RECENT CHANGES IN THE CRATER OF STROMBOLI. 
between Naples and the Straits of Messina, and is thus an object familiar 
to passengers to or from Egypt or the East, though comparatively few 
have landed on its shores. Its almost constant eruptions have gained 
it the name of the lighthouse of the Mediterranean. It is almost 
circular, as its old name Strongyle indicates, and rises as an irregular 
cone out of deep water. On the north-west side is the crater, “ Apparato 
Eruttivo,” of the Italian observers, and the Sciara or steep slope down 
which the ejecta roll into the sea. The Sciara is bounded on each side 
by two steep cliffs, Filo di Sciara and Filo di Baraona, which are formed, 
like the Sciara itself, of lava-streams, agglomerates, and dykes ; in fact, 
of almost every kind of compact volcanic material, chiefly of basic 
composition. 
The summit of the mountain consists of a crescentic ridge, the 
Serra di Yancori, open towards the north. It forms part of an old 
crater ring, and thus presents points of similarity to Somma. Inside 
the crescent ridge, and in places joined to it by irregular crests of 
rock, but mainly separated from it by a valley, “ A Fossieiedda,” similar 
to the Atrio del Cavallo of Vesuvius, is another crescentic ridge, which, 
on my first visit in 1888, in many places immediately surrounded the 
active crater, the bottom of which was visible therefrom. In 1904, owing 
to changes presently to be described, this view was not obtainable. 
Connected with its two extremities, and immediately overlooking 
the sides of the crater, are two conspicuous pointed rocks, the Torrelle,* 
which partly obstruct the view of the crater when viewed from the cliffs 
overlooking the Sciara on its north-east and south-west respectively. 
These Torrelle, being practically unaltered by ordinary eruptions, pre¬ 
sent good points of comparison for estimating the changes that take 
place, and one or other of them is included in most of the photographs. 
Between the two Torrelle, in the midst of a sort of amphitheatre 
formed by them and the crescentic ridge last mentioned, is the crater 
and its appurtenances, “ The Apparato Eruttivo ” of Italian observers. 
This amphitheatre is open to the north-west, and from its open side 
beyond the craters the steep slope of the Sciara extends down into the 
sea. This Sciara, as is well known, is one of the most peculiar features 
of this volcano. It extends at an angle of about 35°, which is the 
“angle of repose” for the kind of material of which it is composed, 
down into the deep water of the Mediterranean; and though the volcano 
has certainly been in almost constant eruption during the whole of the 
historio period and probably much longer, it has never been able to 
build up a talus sufficient to rise to the level of the sea, much less to 
that of the lip of the crater, about which, according to the analogy of 
other volcanoes, it might have been expected to have built up a cone 
on this side comparable to the portion on the south described above, 
* We heard these rocks called by the natives Torrelle [“ little towers ”] and Torrione 
[“ big towers”]. They are spoken of by Profs. Riccb and Mercali as Faraglioni. 
