ashes which characterizes Stromboli. The warmed by the rising sun. First thin and effects of the eruption of the preceding year airy, they gradually thickened, and soon conwere still apparent; and the crater of Etna, attracted the horizon on every side. After throwthe period of our visit, had the appearance of a deep and irregular valley beset with points and capes, and formed by abrupt slopes, bristling with enormous scoria and blocks of lava, heaped up in masses, or rolled and twisted in a thousand different ways by the force of the volcanic action, or the accidental influences to which they had been subjected in the act of falling. The blue, green, and white lava, stained here and there with broad black patches or streaks of dull red, made the livid color of the surrounding rocks still more striking. A death-like silence reigned over the chaos; long lines of white vapor were noiselessly escaping from a thousand different fumaroles, and, trailing slowly along the sides of the crater, carried to the spot where we were standing suffocating emanations of sulphurous and hydrochloric acids. The pale light of the moon, joined to the rising dawn, was a fit accompaniment to this wild scene, whose grand and truly supernatural character no language can adequately express.

"The soil on which we were treading was entirely composed of cinders and scoria, and was humid and warm, and covered with a white coating that looked like hoar frost. This humidity was the acid emitted from the crater, which moistened and corroded every thing that came in contact with it; while the silvery film on which a few crystals were sparkling, was a deposit of sulphur sublimated by the volcanoes, and of the salts formed by the chemical reactions which were incessantly occurring in this formidable laboratory." [According to Elie de Beaumont, the salts are principally sulphates.] "By following the narrow ridge which borders the crater to the south, we reached the highest point, which is situated on its eastern extremity. Here an indescribable spectacle presented itself to our gaze. The sky was perfectly pure, the air was exquisitely transparent, while the horizon (which, from the shortness of the twilight, was now brightly illumined) appeared to have no other limits than those which resulted from the curvature of the earth's surface. From our lofty pedestal we looked down a depth of four or five thousand feet upon the highest summits of the Pelorian and Medonian mountains, while the whole of Sicily lay spread before us as on a map. Wrapt in mute admiration, we cast our eyes from one extremity to the other of this immense circle, when, suddenly, the guide exclaimed, 'Eccolo ecco il sole! and, truly, there was the sun; which, raising its ensanguined orb before us, bathed in one universal tinge of purple earth, sea, and sky, and projected to the very limits of the horizon, and across the entire island, the gigantic shadow of Etna, which, becoming more and more contracted, grew also more distinct in proportion as the sun rose higher above the Ionian sea.

"Light vapors were now every where curling upwards from the earth, as it began to bo

ing one last look at the valley of the crater, we left our place of observation, and descended towards the foot of a mamelon which lay to the east. Our guide soon stopped us near a narrow and steep declivity which was entirely detached from the rounded margin of the cone, and abutted upon a precipice which descended to a depth of several hundred feet. Here we saw him roll up his sleeve and apply it to his mouth, a proceeding which he signified by signs that we must imitate, rushing forward across the slope as he exclaimed: 'Fate presto! Without hesitation we followed him, and speedily reached the margin of the mouth which, in 1842, had thrown its lava into the Val del Bove; and which, being reopened by the eruption of 1848, appeared still to threaten the neighboring district. From the depths of these abysses we had from time to time heard rolling peals or subterranean thunder. Here all description becomes absolutely impossible.

A vast irregular circular inclosure, formed by perpendicular walls, encircled the chasm. To the left, at the foot of the escarpement, a large blow-hole had opened, from which darted forth eddies of fiery red smoke. In the center, to the right, every where lay enormous blocks of lava, which had been shivered, cracked, and torn, some black, others of a dark red, but all exhibiting in their crevices the vivid tints of the lava from which they had been formed. A thousand streams of white or gray smoke were crossing and recrossing each other in all directions, with a deafening noise, and with a whistling sound, similar to that of a locomotive, from which the steam is escaping. Unfortunately we could do no more than throw a hasty glance at this strange and terrific scene. The hydrochloric acid had entered our throats, and penetrated to the last ramification of the bronchial tubes. With haste, and almost as it were intoxicated, we regained the protecting slope, where we might breathe more at ease; and then, resting on our staffs, sprang to the edge of the declivity, which was solely composed of movable debris; and in five minutes we had reached the base of the cone, which it had cost us more than an hour to ascend.

"Our mules were waiting for us at the Casa, and no sooner had they received their light load of wrappers and cloaks, baskets and panniers, than they descended by the straight and nearest track, while we diverged to the left, in order to obtain a view of the Val del Bove. This excur sion was, perhaps, the most arduous part of our whole journey. The wind was blowing from the north-east, and in a few minutes it had grown into a perfect hurricane. Its icy breath raised clouds of sand and gravel, which pricked and stung our faces and hands as if with so many needles. We found considerable difficulty in reach the Torre del Filosofo, a small and ancient monument which is now in ruins, but which, according to Sicilian legends, was the

habitation of Empedocles. The probability is, however, that this was once a tomb. It nearly touches the escarpement of Serre del Solfizio, which bounds the Val del Bore* on the side nearest the volcano. Standing upon these perpendicular rocks, we admired this immense circuit, which measures more than six miles in length, and more than three miles in breadth, and whose walls, which are almost every where perpendicular, and formed of masses of lava older than the human race, often rise to a hight of more than one thousand feet from the base, which is almost entirely composed of cheire superposed upon one another."

No visitor to Etna has been disappointed with the Val del Bove, though we have perused accounts savoring of dissatisfaction with the other parts of the mountain. Dr. Buckland was the first English geologist who carefully examined it, and Sir Charles Lyell has well described it. This vast amphitheater is five miles in diameter, surrounded on three sides by precipices of from 2000 to 3000 feet in hight. Their faces are broken in the most picturesque manner by the vertical walls of lava which traverse them. These usually stand out in relief, are exceedingly diversified in form, and of great altitude. Their black lines may often, in autumn, be seen relieved by clouds of fleecy vapor which settle behind them, and do not disperse until mid-day, continuing to fill the valley, while the sun is shining on every other part of Sicily, and on the higher regions of Etna. So soon as the vapors begin to rise, the changes of scene are strikingly varied, different rocks being hidden and unvailed by turns; and the summit of Etna often breaking through the clouds for a moment with its dazzling snows, and being then as suddenly withdrawn from view. An unusual silence prevails; for there are no torrents dashing from the rocks, nor any movement of running water in this valley. Every drop that falls from heaven, or flows from melting ice or snow, is instantly absorbed by the porous lava; and such is the dearth of springs that the herdsman is compelled to supply his flocks during the hot season from stores of snow laid up in the hollows of the mountain during winter. Strips of herbage and forest-land serve to highten the desolation by contrast. After the eruption of 1819, hundreds of trees,

*The Val de Bove, or "Valley of Oxen," commences near the summit of Etna, and descends into the woody region.

Looking at the pictorial outlines and sketches of this wonderful spot, and comparing the descriptions of several visitors, we are led to conclude with Sir C. Lyell, that a series of subsidences has formerly occurred on the eastern side of Etna, by which (together, possibly, with the eruptions of the sea) this amphitheater of lava may have been formed in the remote ages. We know from records that vast subsidencies have taken place in other volcanic mountains; for, in 1772, the largest volcano in Java, named Papandayang, was the subject of a subsidence, by which an extent of ground no less than fifteen miles in length, and six in breadth, covered forty villages, and the cone lost 4000 feet of its hight engulfed in the earth. Another similar instance is known in the summit of Carguaizazo, one of the loftiest of the Andes of Quito, which fell in on the 19th of July, 1698; and another mountain of greater altitude in the same chain, named Capac Urcu, fell in a short time before the conquest of America by the Spaniards. So late too as the year 1822, a mountain in Java, as we shall elsewhere notice, covered with a dense forest, became an enormous semicircular gulf.

The disastrous eruption of 1669 has been faithfully described by the Italian, Recupero, who drew much of his information from a manuscript preserved at Nicolosi, (near Etna,) and which was written by a certain Don Vincenzo Macro, chaplain to the Church of Nicolosi. Rucupero further consulted the writings of eleven learned Sicilians, a narrative left by the Earl of Winchelsea, English embassador at Constantinople, and another memoir by the well-known Borelli. All of these were eye-witnesses of the scenes they record, and to theirs Recupero has added his own testimony. The facts therefore appear unusually well attested. From the details afforded by these witnesses, and extracted by M. Quatrefages, the following brief narrative is collected:

Up to this time the great crater had remained completely inactive; but on the 15th of March, all at once, towards ten o'clock at night, the entire mountain seemed to shake. First a gigantic column of black smoke and fire darted upwards, and then, with a horrible noise, the summit fell, piece by piece, into the abysses of the volcano. On the following day four daring mountaineers ventured to make the ascent. They found the surface of the soil depressed round the crater, and all the openings which had surrounded it before engulfed and swallowed up, while the orifice, the circumference of which had formerly not exceeded three miles, now measured double that length (if the measurements of Recupero be not exaggerated.)

"On March the 8th, 1669, a terrible hurricane | roar, to eject cinders and scoriæ, and to vomit arose suddenly at daybreak, and continued to stream of lava." rage for half an hour, shaking all the houses of Nicolosi. The following night was marked by an earthquake, the shocks of which gradually increased in intensity until the Sunday, when the walls of the houses began to fall in. The population sought safety in the open country, and during the night of Monday a terrible shock overthrew all the houses of the town. The earthquake now became more violent from hour to hour, and the trees and the few huts still standing oscillated like so many pieces of wood on the troubled ocean. Human beings were unable to retain their footing on this undulating ground, and stumbled and fell at every repeated movement. About this period the earth opened for a space of twelve miles from the Piano di San-Lio to Monte Frumento-one of the secondary cones which lie nearest to the summit of Etna. The fissure thus made inclined from south-west to north-east, and was from six to four feet wide, but its depth could not be sounded, notwithstanding the frequent attempts made to ascertain it. At length the flames of Etna burst through the soil, which "The torrent of lava which issued from the had been so often broken and rebroken. The Monti Rossi, still continued its course in a first mouth was opened to the west of Monte southerly direction. Its different branches Nucilla, and threw into the air a column of sand reached a length of nearly four miles. Each and smoke, which was estimated by the inhabit-day new streams of liquid fire flowed over the ants of Catania to have risen to an elevation of more than 1200 feet. In the space of two hours, six other mouths were opened, all of which were placed in a longitudinal line, and in the same direction as the fissure of which we have spoken. A black and thick smoke issued with horrible noise from these blowholes, new craters were formed in the course of the day, and on the Tuesday morning the crater appeared from which arose the Monti Rossi.

"This last opening at first ejected a thick smoke, mixed with burning scoriæ; but after the course of a few hours its mouth gave vent to an immense quantity of lava, which, forming a stream nearly three miles wide and ten feet high, took a southerly direction, and struck against the base of Monpilieri, an ancient crater, which was then covered with trees and other vegetation. The burning stream penetrated through this somewhat shallow soil, and, forming itself a passage across the mountain, it flowed for some time along this self-made aqueduct; but Monpilieri having partially broken down, the lava flowed around it, encircling it like an island of verdure lost in the midst of flames. Seven secondary mouths opened at the same time round the principal crater. They were at first isolated, and threw up into the air an enormous quantity of burning stones, which struck each other as they fell back, and joined the noise of their fall to the terrific artillery of the volcano. At the end of three days they were united into one vast and horrible chasm of fully 2500 feet in circumference, which never ceased from the 11th of March to the 15th of July to pour forth its thundering

substances that had been partially solidified since the previous nights, thus widening the beds of the different streams which encroached upon the various islands of land temporarily spared. On the 1st of April the lava came within sight of the walls of Catania, and extended to the Campagna of the Albanelli. Here, as if to show its power, its first lifted up and transplanted to a considerable distance an argillaceous hill covered with corn-fields, and then an entire vineyard, which floated for some time upon its burning waves. After having leveled various inequalities, the lava at length reached a deep and broad valley, and the Catanians now believed themselves secure. But in the short. space of six hours the valley was completely filled, while the lava, flowing straight towards them, stopped at a stone's throw from the walls, like an enemy who pitches his camp before the fortress he is about to assail.

"On the 12th of April, a stream of lava nearly a mile and a half wide, and more than thirty feet high, advanced in a direct line towards the town. Struck in its course by another current which was flowing westward, it turned aside, and running within a pistol-shot of the ramparts, it passed beyond the harbor, and finally reached the harbor on the 23d of April. Then began a contest between the fire and the water, which even the eye-witnesses felt the impossibility of fully describing. The lava, cooled at its base by contact with the water, presented a perpendicular wall of about 1500 yards in extent, and thirty or forty feet in hight. At the point of contact between the two elements, enormous masses of water were converted into vapor, which, rising with a hor

rible whistling sound, hid the sun behind a mass of thick clouds, and then fell in salt rain over the neighboring country. In the course of a few days the lava had caused the coast line New affluents continued to increase the burning stream, whose current, after being incessantly widened, at last reached the ramparts of Catania."

to advance some nine hundred feet further into the sea.

Day by day the stream rose higher and higher, until it was even with the top of the walls, which, no longer able to support this enormous pressure, gave way on the 30th of April for a space of about 120 feet. The lava at once entered by the breach which had been thus made. The part of the town thus broken into was the highest, and Catania now seemed doomed to total destruction. It was, however, saved by the energy of three men, who ventured to contend with the volcano. Doctor Savorio Musureci, and the painter Giacinto Platania, conceived the idea of constructing walls of dry stones, which, being placed in an oblique position before the current, were intended to divert its direction. This was partially successful; but a Dominican brother devised a more promising method of resistance. The beds of lava became encased in a kind of solid canal formed of blocks of cool lava cemented together. The liquid mass, protected by this kind of casing, was able to extend its ravages to a greater distance by preserving its fluidity. The Domincan thought that by knocking down these natural dykes at some favorable point, he might open new channels for the burning waves. Followed by an hundred active men, he made an attack upon the stream, not far from the crater, with sticks, and clubs, and hammers. So intense was the heat that every man was obliged to fall back to recover his breath after he had struck two or three blows. By continued efforts, and by the aid of iron clamps, they contrived to demolish a portion of the dyke, and then the lava diffused itself through this opening. But the new current turned in the direction of the town of Palmero; and its inhabitants, fearing its destruction, fell upon the Dominican and his assistants, and obliged him to

retreat.

The proceeding, however, was so far successful that the lava was prevented from overwhelming the whole town; and it stopped on the 8th of May, after having destroyed three hundred houses, sev

eral palaces and churches, and the garden of the Benedictines. The present garden of the latter has been made up of earth brought from a distance to cover this lava, which rises like an irregular rampart within a few feet of the walls of this monastery, which is, undoubtedly, the handsomest building in Catania. On the 13th of May, a small stream flowed over the rampart to the south of the town near the church Della Parma; but a wall of dry stones which had been hastily constructed, sufficed to arrest its further progress. Some days afterwards a new current invaded the castle, filled up its fosses, and speedily reached the level of the ramparts. A dyke was constructed; but on the 11th of June the lava crossed the wall and flowed through the town. Anew barrier was then opposed to it, arrested it, and preserved one of the finest parts of Catania. From this period the lava flowed in a direct course into the sea. Lord Winchelsea tells us that the eruption continued some time longer, and that the cinders fell at Catania, and as far as thirty miles out at sea, with such violence and intensity as to be injurious and painful to the eyes.

This celebrated eruption covered about fifty square miles with a stratum of thick lava, which at certain points extended to a depth of 100 feet, and which, after threatening to annihilate Catania, destroyed the habitations of 27,000 persons. Even in the present day traces exist on the surface of the soil of these terrible phenomena which occurred nearly 200 years before: Recupero has found fifteen accessory mouths, which mark the direction of the subterranean forces over a space of about 1500 yards.

Catania itself may be called the capital of lava. Although it is separated from the great crater, which is the center of action of the subterranean fires, by a distance of twenty-five miles, as the crow flies, yet this town appears as if it were the direct product of the volcano. Inclosed within four lava beds of different ages, the materials for its houses, and pavements, and streets, have all been derived from the products of the crater. It is only through the lava that its inhabitants can penetrate to the springs of water. Its harbors have been filled up with molten matter, and liquid fire has consumed its gardens, overthrown its walls, and buried entire districts. What lava has spared, earthquakes have destroyed;