*246 
LETTERS FROM 
The inhabitants of the island had been 
alarmed by dreadful subterraneous noises, 
while the crater of the mountain had been 
continually disgorging columns of fire and 
smoke, and projecting red hot masses of 
rock, some of which measured fifteen feet in 
diameter, to the distance of more than a 
mile. During these internal struggles, the 
island trembled from one end to the other. 
At length a torrent of lava burst forth from 
the side of the mountain, (from the spot 
where Monte Rosso now stands,) and pouring- 
down with resistless fury, it soon reached the 
ill-fated city of Catania, a great part of which 
it overwhelmed. This torrent is said to have 
covered a space fourteen miles in length, 
nearly four in breadth, and of such a thick¬ 
ness, that in some places it retained a sen¬ 
sible warmth for eight years afterwards. In 
its progress it utterly destroyed the houses 
