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LETTERS FROM 
We may form some idea of the prodigious 
quantity of matter which this mountain has 
disgorged, when we read that it has been 
calculated that the lava, ashes, and other 
bodies thrown out in 1669 amounted to four 
hundred and thirty-five millions of cubic 
yards, and that in former eruptions the lava 
alone covered a space thirty miles in 
length, and fifteen in breadth. The whole 
of the coast from Catania to the distance 
of twenty miles or more to the northward, 
consists entirely of rocks of lava thrown out 
at various times, and in many places the 
torrent has encroached upon the ancient 
boundary of the sea, which has been driven 
back for several miles. During an eruption 
in 1329, it is said that the ashes were earned 
as far as Malta. 
Though Catania is situated at the distance 
of about twenty miles from the crater of 
