Part 5 (2/2)

51. In 1744 the mountain threw out great quant.i.ties of ashes, but no lava.

52. In 1747 a quant.i.ty of lava flowed from the great crater into the Val del Bove, and the height of the cone was considerably increased during the eruption.

53. Early in the year 1755, Etna began to show signs of disturbance; a great column of black smoke issued from the crater, from which forked lightning was frequently emitted. Loud detonations were heard, and two streams of lava issued from the crater. A new mouth opened near the Rocca di Musarra in the Val del Bove, four miles from the summit, and a quant.i.ty of lava was ejected from it. An extraordinary flood of water descended from the Val del Bove, carrying all before it, and strewing its path, with huge blocks. Recupero estimated the volume of water as 16,000,000 cubic feet, probably a greater amount than could be furnished by the melting of all the winter's snow on the mountain. It formed a channel two miles broad, and, in some places, thirty-four feet deep, and it flowed at the rate of a mile in a minute and a half during the first twelve miles of its course. Lyell considers the flood was probably produced by the melting, not only of the winter's snow, but also of older layers of ice, which were suddenly melted by the permeation of hot steam and lava, and which had been previously preserved from melting by a deposit of sand and ashes, as in the case of the ancient glacier found near the summit of the mountain in 1828. In November 1758, a smart shock of earthquake caused the cone of the great crater to fall in, but no eruption occurred at the time.

54. Great quant.i.ties of ashes, and some small streams of lava, were emitted from the crater in 1759, a little later the cone, which had been again raised by the eruption, gave way, and the greater part of it fell into the crater. Two parts of it however were left standing.

55. Severe shocks of earthquakes were felt on the east side of the mountain in 1763, and a new mouth opened in the Bosco di Bronte, ten miles from the town, between Monte Rosso and Monte Lepre. Four other mouths were afterwards opened in a line; they threw up quant.i.ties of scoriae and ashes, and afterwards lava. In the middle of June several mouths opened on the south side of the mountain, and a fissure 2000 feet long opened downwards in a southerly direction. The lava divided into two branches, the larger of which was ten miles long and 250 feet wide, with a depth of 25 feet.

56. Several new mouths opened in the spring of 1766, and ejected large volumes of ashes, also streams of lava, which flowed in the direction of Nicolosi and Pedara. The Canon Recupero, one of the historians of Etna, witnessed this eruption, and narrowly escaped being destroyed. He had ascended a small hill 50 feet high, of ancient volcanic matter, in order to witness the approach of the lava stream which was slowly advancing with a front of two miles and a half. Suddenly two small streams detached themselves from the main stream, and ran rapidly towards the hill. Recupero and his guide at once hastened to descend, and had barely escaped when they saw the hill surrounded by lava, and in a few minutes it was melted down and sank into the molten ma.s.s.

57. In the early part of 1780, earthquakes were felt all over Sicily, and on the 18th of May a fissure opened on the south-west side of the mountain, and extended from the base of the great crater for seven miles, terminating in a new mouth from which a stream of lava emanated.

This encountered the cone of Palmintelli in its course, and separated into two branches, each of which was 400 feet wide. Other mouths opened later in the year, and emitted large quant.i.ties of lava, which devastated the country of Montemazzo.

58. In 1781 the volcano emitted a quant.i.ty of lava which flowed into the Val del Bove. Clouds of grey ashes were also ejected. At the commencement of the great Calabrian earthquake of 1783, Etna ejected large quant.i.ties of smoke, but it was otherwise quiescent.

59. In the middle of 1787 lava burst from the great crater, which also discharged quant.i.ties of sand, scoriae, and red-hot ashes. Large heated ma.s.ses of rock were ejected to a great height, and subterranean bellowings were heard by the dwellers on the mountain.

60. Five years afterwards a fresh outburst occurred, earthquakes were prevalent, and vast volumes of smoke bore to seaward, and seemed to bridge the sea between Sicily and Africa. A torrent of lava flowed towards Aderno, and a second flowed into the Val del Bove as far as Zoccolaro. A pit called _La Cisterna_, 40 feet in diameter, opened in the Piano del Lago, near the great cone, and ejected smoke and ma.s.ses of old lava saturated with water. Several mouths opened below the crater, and the country round about Zaffarana was desolated. The Abate Ferrara, the author of the _Descrizione dell' Etna_, witnessed this eruption: ”I shall never forget,” he writes, ”that this last mouth opened precisely on the spot where, the day before, I had made my meal with a shepherd.

On my return next day he related how, after a stunning explosion, the rocks on which we had sat together were blown into the air, and a mouth opened, discharging a flood of fire, which, rus.h.i.+ng down with the rapidity of water, hardly gave him time to make his escape.”

61. In 1797 a slight eruption occurred, and the great crater threw out ashes and sand, but no lava. Earthquakes were frequent.

62. In the following year lava was emitted, and severe earthquakes occurred.

63. The eruptions continued during 1799.

64. In February 1800 loud explosions were heard by the dwellers on the mountain, and columns of fire issued from the crater, accompanied by forked lightning. This was succeeded by a discharge of hot ashes and scoriae, which, falling on the snows acc.u.mulated near the summit of the mountain, produced devastating floods of water.

65. In November 1802 a new mouth opened near the Rocca di Musarra in the Val del Bove, which emitted a copious stream of lava. In a day and a half the lava had run twelve miles.

66. In 1805 the great crater was in a state of eruption, and a cone was thrown up within it to a height of 1,050 feet.

67. In 1808 the mountain again became active, and fire and smoke were emitted from the crater.

68. In March 1809, no less than twenty-one mouths of fire opened in the direction of Castiglione. They ejected volumes of smoke, large quant.i.ties of scoriae and ashes, and afterwards lava, which, uniting into one torrent, flowed with a front of 450 feet for 8 miles. Fissures were formed in the earth, and loud explosions constantly occurred within the great crater; a small cone was thrown up.

69. Two years afterwards more than thirty mouths opened in a line running eastwards for five miles. They ejected jets of fire accompanied by much smoke. The eruptions soon diminished in the higher mouths, and became more and more violent in the lower mouths, until the eruption centred in the lowest one called S. Simone, near the head of the Val del Bove. From this, great black clouds, having a l.u.s.tre like that of black wool, issued, and afterwards quant.i.ties of lava, which formed a stream a mile wide, and eight miles long. It flowed nearly as far as the village of Milo. Frequent earthquakes accompanied this outburst, and they continued in various parts of the island for the following five years.

70. In 1819 five new mouths of fire opened near the scene of the eruption of 1811; three of these united into one large crater, and poured forth a quant.i.ty of lava into the Val del Bove. The lava flowed until it reached a nearly perpendicular precipice at the bend of the valley of Calanna, over which it fell in a cascade, and, being hardened by its descent, it was forced against the sides of the tufaceous rock at the bottom, so as to produce an extraordinary amount of abrasion, accompanied by clouds of dust, worn off by the friction. Mr. Scrope observed that the lava flowed at the rate of about a yard an hour, nine months after its emission.

71. A slight eruption occurred in 1831 from the great crater, which threw out lava on its northern side.

72. In October of the following year a violent eruption occurred. A new crater was formed in the Val del Serbo, above Bronte and three miles from the summit. Seven mouths afterwards opened, three miles below the first. From one of these lava was emitted, which flowed to within a mile and a half of Bronte. The stream was a mile and a half broad, and 40 feet deep.

73. A slight eruption occurred in 1838, when a small quant.i.ty of lava was poured from the great crater into the Val del Bove.

74. Four years later the crater discharged ashes and scoriae, and lava burst from the cone 300 feet from the summit. It flowed into the Val del Bove, in a stream 600 feet wide, and it came to a standstill ten miles from the summit.

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