ETNA. 39 
this were not the cafe, would have been broken by heavy 
{tones falling from fo great a height. 
Spallanzani informs us, that befide the eminence on 
which he flood, there is another to the north, a quarter 
of a mile higher, whic'h renders the fummit of Etna pro¬ 
perly bifurcated. The crater on this fecond pre-eminence, 
and from which the leirer column of fmoke afcends, is 
about one-half fmaller than the other, and is feparated 
from it by a partition of fcoriae and accumulated lava, 
which lies in a direction from eaft to weft. I he abbe 
has compared his own obfervations with thofe of others 
who have defended the crater of Etna in the courfe of 
twenty years, or from the time when it was vifited by 
Baron Riedefel in 1767, to that of his own journey in 
1788. At the time of the baron’s obfervation, the crater 
was enlarged towards the eaft with an aperture which does 
not now ex id ; and as the ftones which were then thrown 
in did not return the fmallefl found, the bottom of the 
crater could not be formed with the hard and flat furface 
which the abbe has deferibed. Within the gulfitfelf was 
heard a noife fimilar to that of the waves of the lea, when 
agitated by a tempell ; and this muft probably have pro¬ 
ceeded from the lava within the bounds of the mountain, 
in a liquified and perturbed (late. Sir William Hamilton 
arrived at the fummit of Etna on the 26th of October, 
1769; but was prevented from didiinftly viewing the 
lower parts of the crater by the fmoke that iffued from 
jt. From W’hat he was able to obferve he concludes, 
that its figure refembled that of a funnel, diminifhing till 
it ended in a point, and that this funnel was crufted over 
with fait and fulphur. The crater was then two miles 
and a half in circumference ; and muft have undergone 
great changes in the interval that elapfed between thefe 
obfervations and thofe of Riedefel, in whofe time there 
muft have been an abyfs as well as a funnel ; nor does the 
point in which the funnel terminated admit of the flat 
bottom deferibed by Spallanzani. The dimenfions of the 
crater, dated by fir William Hamilton, the abbe accounts 
for by fuppofing, that the partition w’hich now feparates 
the great crater into two parts has been produced fince 
the time of his obfervation ; for the fnm of the two cir¬ 
cumferences which the abbe has noticed w ould not much 
differ from the other meafure. Mr. Brydone, who ob- 
ferved the crater on the 29th of May, 1770, fays, that it 
was then a circle of about three miles and a half in cir¬ 
cumference, that it fhelved down on each fide, and that 
it formed a regular hollow, like a vafl amphitheatre, and 
that a great mouth opened near the centre. Count Borch 
arrived at the mountain on the 16th of October 1776, 
and merely obferves, that the crater is formed like a fun¬ 
nel, and that the fummit is bifurcated; a circumdance 
unnoticed by fir W. Hamilton, who affirms, on the con¬ 
trary, that the fummit is (ingle ; and the abbe therefore 
concludes, that one of thefe fummits has been produced 
fince the journey of Brydonein 1770. 
Etna produces a great variety of plants and flowers, as 
well as trees of a larger fize, the cork tree, &c. Mr. 
Brydone enumerates the cinnamon, farfaparilla, fallafras, 
rhubarb, and palma Chridi j and he adds, that it was cele¬ 
brated by the ancients for its odoriferous produftions. 
Plutarch and Aridotle intimate that the fmell of the 
plants was fo drong on many parts of the mountain, that 
it was impoffible to hunt. There was formerly a great 
variety of wild beads in the woody region of Etna; but 
the number of them is now much reduced. There are 
dill wild boars, roebucks and wild goats; but the race 
of dags is thought to be extinct. The horfes and cattle 
of mount Etna were once edeemed the bed in Sicily. 
The cattle are dill of a large fize, but the horfes have de¬ 
generated. Spallanzani informs us, that partridges were 
ihot at the upper extremity of the middle region, and in 
this region he met with feveral birds of the titmoufe fpe- 
cies, and feveral ravens and crows. But in the middle of 
the higher region he faw no other animals, except fome 
lion.ants, which made their pitfalls in the dud of the lavas, 
Dolomieu has publiffied a minute catalogue of all the 
mineral products of Etna ; the lavas being modly with a 
bafis of hornblende, while many others are of petrodlex, 
or the keralite of the French : the ejected dones are gra¬ 
nitic, or calcareous. Dolomieu afferts that Etna may be 
faid to be furrounded with columns of bafalt, which he 
calls prifmatic lava; but Spallanzani obferves that he 
has carefully examined the fhore, which is volcanic for 
near twenty.three miles, “ one third of it beginning at 
Catania, and proceeding to Cadello di Jaci, condds of 
prifms more or lefs characterized, and fuch as they have 
been deferibed by M. Dolomieu ; but the other two 
thirds, though equally compofed of lavas with the for¬ 
mer, and for the mod part falling perpendicularly into the 
fea, have no fuch figure ; and only prefent here and there 
irregular fifi’ures, and angular pieces, fuch as are generally 
obfervable in all lavas, which feparate more or lefs on 
their congelation. 
The many awful and dedruCtive eruptions of Mount 
Etna, form an intereding conclufion to this article. The 
drd eruption of which we have any pofitive hidorical re¬ 
cord is that mentioned by Diodorus Siculus; though he 
does not fpecify the precife period when it happened. 
This was the event, however, which compelled the Sicani 
to abandon the eadern parts of Sicily, and to fettle in the 
fouthern parts. The fecond eruption is the fird of three 
that are recited by Thucydides, without mentioning the 
exaft date of any one of them. He fays, that from the 
arrival of the firft Greek colonies that fettled in Sicily, 
viz. in the third year of the nth olympiad, correfpond- 
ing to the year 733 before the Chriitian tera, to the third 
year of the 8Sth olympiad, Ant. Chrid. 423, Etna, at 
three different times, difeharged torrents of dre. This 
fecond eruption happened, according to Eufebius, Ant. 
Chrid. 565. The third eruption, or the fecond mention¬ 
ed by Thucydides, happened, as he fays, in the 50th year 
before the lad ; or as it is dated Ant. Chrid. 475, Olym¬ 
piad 76A, when Phaedo was archon at Athens. But the 
Oxford marble refers it to the id year of the 75th olym¬ 
piad, Ant. Chrid. 477, when Xantippus was archon at 
Athens. In the fecond year of this olympiad, it is faid 
the Athenians gained their boaded victory over Xerxes’s 
general, Mardonius, near Platasa. Both the eruption of 
the volcano and the victory of the Athenians are commemo¬ 
rated in an ancient infeription on the marble table above 
mentioned. It was at this eruption, as we are told, that 
two rich brothers, named Amphinomus and Anapis, dif- 
regarding their effects, rufhed into the dames and carried 
off their aged parents on their backs. It is faid that the 
fire fpared thefe youths, whild others who took the fame 
road were confirmed. The citizens of Catania recom- 
penfed this act of filial piety with a temple and divine 
honours. The fourth eruption, or the third mentioned 
by Thucydides, occurred in the 88th olympiad, Ant. 
Chrid. 423. and laid wade the territory of Catania. The 
fifth is dated by Orolius, in the confulfbip of Sergius 
Fulvius Flaccus, and Qujntus Calpurnius Pifo, about 
133 years before Cirri ft. mentions an eruption in the con- 
fulate of C. Radius and Q^Serviilus, Ant. Chrid. 140. 
Thedxth happened in the 123th year before the Clnidiau 
asra, and Orofius fays, that a number of dffies were de- 
droyed by it, and that the inhabitants of Lipari fud'ered 
exceedingly by eating them. The feventh eruption, 
which occurred in the i2id year before Chrid, is recorded 
by Livy, defolated Catania to fuch a degree, that the in¬ 
habitants were excufed by the Romans from paying taxes 
for ten years, in order to enable them to repair the damage 
which they had fudained. An eighth eruption happened 
in the 43d year before Chrid, not long before the death 
of Caefar, and was afterwards regarded as an omen of this 
event. The ninth eruption is mentioned by Suetonius, 
in his lifeof Caligula, tom. i. p. 608. It happened A.D. 4c, 
and terrified the emperor fo as to make him fiy precipi¬ 
tately from Medina. This is reckoned the 1 3th eruption, 
by Cluverius. Carrera mentions two eruptions, one in 
3 the 
