New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1852-04-01

4
and wounded
When this foolery had been carried to its
height, perceived Grace suddenly rise, and
step through the open window out on the piazza
In few minutes followed her. she had retired
to little distance from the railing weeping.
Stealing softly behind her; I passed my arm
around her and whispered,
sAh dearest Grace, do not deny it! You
| love ep'
| There was little pause-then laughing, yet
half crying, Grace turned aside her head and
| said,
Sc Alas L know it,
| MOUNT ETNA.-We take from the Italian cor
respondence of the National Intelligencer the
following description of the ascent of Mount
Etna:
| From the Casa Inglesa to the highest crater
occupies about an hour The direct elevation
is about 1400 feet, but the winding of the path
more than doubles the distance.
As daylight broke clear and broad over the
still earth, and the eastern sky cleaned with
the first rays of the rising sun, reached the
highest peak and turned to look down into the
vast depths below. The whole island was
wrapped in an impenetrable mass of sleeping
clouds, covering mountain and valley and ocean,
as mantle of mist. while not shadow dimmed
the bright sky above. 1t was thus upon the
|
mament arched over us, and the vast sea Of
3 floating clouds outspread below, that there up
rose before sublime picture of the shat
tered Ark, as it rested of old amid the subsding
n floods on the heights of Ararat, when the foun-
o tains of the deep and the windows of heaven
u were stopped and the rain from heaven was re-
1t strained
b On the right and on the left yawned vast
: crater, lined with banks of sulphur and ashes
: and from out the bowels of the earth came
clouds of hot smoke, rolling upward till they
vanished in the thin air; and thousand assures
e around sent out jets of scalding steam, and
smouldering fires seemed ready to burst forth
and spread ruin and death under their seething
a floods of lava. And now, from the bed of clouds
that rested on the deep, up rose the sun, scat
tering away the thin vapors that hung around
Q his couch, and filling the air with his glorious
radiance; and the slumbering ocean of mist
e that lay upon the valleys upheaved under his
e piercing rays of heat and light, and gathered
IT in around the mountain tops and green val
leys, and villages, and vineyards, and CLEANS of
,. bright waters, lay outspread in the calm of the
y morning as it opened upon the shores and wales
: of Sicily.
!, One gigantic shadow, the shadow of the
u mighty Etna, stretched across the lesser noun
y tans below as far as the eye could reach and
the valleys beneath it were still covered with
II clouds and the darkness within the shadow. Up
II rose the sun higher and still higher; and now
IL the floating yapors that rested upon the earth
Z disappeared and there was nothing left but the
II bright glowing abyss of mountain and valley,
- bathed in his effulgent rays; for " his going
forth is from the end of the heaven and his circuit
= : unto the ends Of it and there is nothing hid
Il from the heat thereof There was not breath
. of air to disturb the glttering sea ships lay
, motionless on its unrutfied surface; and on the
q shores glistened, like flakes of snow the villages
~ that washed by its waters Far in the dis
'o tance the towering mountains OF Caabria reared
., their rugged peaks, bounding the view towards
"a the east to the north lay Messina and the rocks
u of Scylla and Chary bdis and stretching south
=, ward the coast swept under the base of the
~ mountain; its shores lined with villas and
IN towns, and indented by the bays of Catania
l. Agosta and Syracuse Back towards the west
lay the interior of Sicily, a desert of parched
U Ue9 and barren hills, with tree or spot OF
Id verure to relieve the sterility of the vast Wild
VI erness And now, as we gazed entranced upon
this scene of awful submity the smoke rose up
vi in heavy masses from the crater, ana, WhirnS
around us with sudden gust, shut out sea and
&c earth and filled the air with noxious gases
w. and the sun had lurid and ghastly glare
let through the gloom, and we thought the earth
gs trembled. But soon the gust passed away, and
lrs left us unharmed amid the smouldering masses
III of ashes and sulphur.
ro, My friend, the Englishman, considered the
50 whole thing excessively fine; III whlch sen
60 timent heartily agreed with him, with the un-
Mt derstanding. however, that ii would require the
M simultaneous rising of the sun and moon ane
- - all the stars to get me up there again in thu
middle of the night; sentiment in which W.
,ed both agreed, and thus compromising all pre-
al vous diversity of tastes, we sat down in a com
No. Portable bed of sulphur, and, warming ou
fnl hands in jet of steam, lit a couple OF cigar
If and smoked costly with old Etna.
H. 1t is difficult, without any means of measure
ed ment to give correct idea of the extent anc
nd depth of the craters; and unfortunately have
ty no books at hand from which to derive the re
l quired data. The extent of the rim OF the up
ed per crater must be about three miles and hal
ny calculating by the time required to wall
nd around it; the depth. as far down as the necl
SIS. or narrowest part, perhaps threS or four nun
rly dred yards The nearest estimate We coul'
it. make of the depth was by rolling down larS
yho pices of lava and listening to the reverberatio
ace made as they struck for the last time. We wen
lit down II short distance within the rim of tn
great crater to collect some volcanic specimens
but but were soon driven back by the smoke. Th
or sides are so precipitous that, to make any ez
sity tended descent with safety, it would be neeessa
ry to be provided with ropes; and then 1t eoul
lid only be done in very calm weather, when thei
It is but little smoke | am not sure whether thu
nole feat has ever been accomplished but 50 far q
-an | could Judge there is no reason why 1t Shoui
had not The crater of Mount Vesuvius has bee
ica- explored by several daring adyenturers, NJ
TEN there does not seem to be any great dliheulty
.hty effecting the descent into that OF Mount Eth
For that matter, indeed, 1t requires nelth
lolilprS n down Srort tGE Il