Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1853-05-14
Mount Eina.
law.

Bayard Taylor appears to have been ex-
ceedingly fortunate in happening to be near
! Mount Etna, 10 witness the eruption, which
| lie so beautifully describes in tho follownw
letter to the New York Tribune:
"When we stopped to change horses at
the town of Aei Renle, first felt, the violence
Of the trenor aud awful sternness Of the
sound The smoke by this time seemed to
be gathering on the side towards Catnnia,
aud hung in a dark mass about half way
down the side of the mountain. Groups of
the villagers were gathered in the streets
| which looked upward TO Etnn, discussing
the chances of OH eruption. "Ah!" said an
| old peasant "ihe mountain knows how to
make himself respected; when he talks,
everybody listens" The sound is the most
awful that ever met my ears. II is hard,
painful moan, now aud then iluttering like
suppressed sob, aud has ut the sumo time an
expression of threatening aud of agony. 1t
did not come from Etna alone. IL had no
| fixed location it pervuded oil space. II was
| in the air, in the depth of the sea, in the
searlh under my feet, everywhere, in fact
and rs il increased in vioieuce, experienced
n sensation OF possivc distress. The people
looked anxious aud alarmed, although they
said il was good thing for oil Sicily the
last year they had been in constant fear of
earthquakes; and that an eruption usually
left the island quiet for several years. 1t is
true, that, during the past year, parts OF Sic
| lily aud Calubra have been visited by severe
shocks, occasionng much damage TO proper
| ty A merchant in this city informed me
! yesterday, thut his whole family had slept for
two months in the vaults Of his warehouse,
fearing that their residence might be shaken
down in the night.
As we rode along from Ae Rcale to Taor-
minu, all the raitlng of the diligence over
the rough road, could not drown the nwlul
noise. There was strong smell of sulp plur
~ the air, aud the clouds Of smoke from the
low crater, continued 10 increase IN yigor.--
The sun was fierce aud hot, and the edge of
suphurous clouds shone with a dazzling
whiteness. A mounted soldier overlook US,
ond rode hesidc the diligence talkingiwith the
postilIion. lie had been up the mountain,
aud was taking his report to the governor OF
the district The heat of the day, aud the
continued remor in the mir, luIled me into
sort of doze, when wos suddenly aroused by
cry irom the soldier, aud the Stopping of
the diligence. AT the same time there was II
terrific peal ofsound, followed by a jar which
must have shaken The whole island.
"t lsilui WHICH WIS lolt-
nntely in full view before us. An immense
innss of snow'whitc smoke had burst from
the crater. nnl was rising perpendicularly
into the air, its r2unded volumes rapidly
whirling one over the o,,.er, vet urged with
such impetus that they ouly rolled outward
after they had ascended 10 an imciense
height 1t might have been one minute or
iive-tor was so entranceh with this won
deriul spectacle, that lost all sense of time
hui it seemed instantaneous, so rapid aud !
violent were the effects of the explosion, |
when there stood in the mir, based on the
summit of the mountain, mass of smoke
four or five miles high, shaped precisely like
an Italian pine tree.
Words cannot paint the grandeur Of this
mighty tree. Its trunk of columed smoke,
one side of which wns sllvcred by the sun,
while the other, in shadow, was lurcd with
the flame, rose for more than mile, before
il began TO send out its cloudy bomghs.-
Then parting into thousand streams, each
OF which agaiB threw out its branching tufts
of smoke, rolling and waving in the air, as
II stood in Intense relief against the dark
blue of the sky. Its rounded masses os To-
liage were dazzling white on one side,
while IN tue shadow depths of the branches,
there was constant play of brown, yellow,
and crimson tints, revealing the central shaft |
OF fire. Ii was like that tree celebrated in |
the Scandinavian sagas, ns seen hy the moth
er OF Harold liadrac-that tree whose roots
pierced through the earth, whose trunk was
OF the color OF blood, aud whose branches
illed The utmost corners Of the heavens.
This outburst seemed 10 have relieved the
mountain for the fremors were now less
Violent though the terrible noise still dronn-
ed IN the air, the earth and sea. And now,
rom the base Ofthe tree three white streams
! slowly crept into as many chas,ns, against
the walls of which played The Pickering glow
| OF burning lava. The column of smoke and
flame was still hurled upward, aud the tree, |
alter standing about ten minutes--a new and |
beautiful revelation OF the active fore of Ma |
ture-gradually rose and spread, lost its |
form, aud slowly moved by light wind, |
the first that disturbed the dead calm of that |
day bent over TO tho enstware. We resumed |
our course. The vast belt of smoke at last
arched over the Strait, here about twenty
miles wide, and sunk towards the distart
Calabran shore. AS we drove under il. for
some miles OF our way, the sun was totally
obscured, and the sky presented the singular
spectacle of two heuispheres of blue with a
broad belt of darkness stretching between
them. There was hot, sulphurous yapor
| IN the air, aud showers OF white ashes ieli
from time to time. We were distant al,out
fiileen miles in straight line from the era
ter, but the mir was so clear, even under the
shadow of smoke, that | could distinctly
trace the downward movement of the rivers
Of burning lava.
|