Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1853-04-22
Mount E1na.

Bayard Taylor appears TO have been exceeding
~ fortunate IN happening to be near Mount Etna,
TO witness the eruption, which he so beautifully
describes in the following letter 10 the New York
Tribune
."When we stopped to change horses at the
town OF Ael Reale, first felt the violence ofthe
lremor and awful sternness of the sound. The
smoke by this time seemed TO be gathering on the
side towards Catanla, and hung in dark mass
about half way down the side of the mountain.
Groups of the villagers were gathered in the
streets which looked upward to Etna, discussing
the chdnces of an eruption. 'Ah!'' said an old
peasant, ''the mountain knows how to make him.
self respected when he talks everybody listens
The sound Is the most awful that ever met rnv
ears. 1t Is hard, painful moan, now and then
hulterIng like suppressed sob, and has at the
same time. an expression of threatening and of
agony. 1t did not come from Etna alone. 1t had
no lAeu location; 1t pervaded all space 1t was
In the air, in the depth of the sea- in the earth
under my feet, everywhere, in fact; and as ii in
creased IN violence, | experienced a sensation of
positive distress. The people looked anxious and
alarmed, although they said it vas good thing
Tor all sicily; the last year they had been in con-
slant lear OF earthquakes; and that an eruption
usually left the island quiet for several years. 1t
Is true, that during the past year, paris of Sicily
- Oii" navy peeh visited by severe shocks,
occnslonng much damage to property A nner
chant In this city informed me Yesterday, thai his
whole family had slept for two months in The
vaults OF his warehouse, fearing that their resi-
dence might be shaken down in the nigh.
AS we rode along fIou Aei Reae 10 laormina,
all the rafting of the diligence over the. rough
road, could not drown the awful noise. There
was strong smell of sulphur in the air, and the
pants of smoke from the low crater, continued TO
increase in yigor. The sun was fierce and bot
and the edge OF sulphurous clouds shont with
dazzling whIteness. A mounted soldier overlook
as, and rode beside the diligence, talking with
the posllllon. lie had been up the mountain,
and was taking his report to the governor of the
uiSlficl' Inc neat OF the day, and the continued
renior IN the air, luled me INTO SORT Of dnza
when was suddenly aroused by cry from the
soldier, and the stopping of the diligence Atthe
same time there was "A terrific peal of sound, fol-
lowed by jar which must have shaken the whole
island.
we looked up to Etna, which was fortunately
IN full view before US. An immense mass Of
snow white smoke had burst from The crater. and
was rising perpendicuary into the air, lis round
ed volumes rapidly whrllng one oser the other.
yet urged with such impetus that they only rolled
outward after they had assembled to an immense
height. 1t must have been one minute or five
lor was so enlranced with this wonderful spec
tacle' lhat lost all sense of time--but il seemed
instantaneous, sorapid and violent were the eff
lec's OF the explosion, when there stood in The
an based on The summit Of the mounlaa,, a 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 coumned snoke. one Ida ~
which was silvered by the sun. while Tho other.
IN shadow, was lurd with the flame. rose for
more than mile, before il began to send out he
cloudy boughs. Then parting into n thousand
streams, each OF which again threw ont he
branching tufts OF smoke, rolling and waving in
the air, as it stood in intense relief egainsl Ibe
derk blue OF the sky. Its rounded masses Of To-
llage were dozzng white on one side. while in
the shadow depths Of the branches. there ,vas
constant play Of brown, yellow and crimson tints.
revealing the central shaft of fire. II was like
thai tree celebrated 10 the Scandinavian sagns as
seen by the mother Of Harold lladrac--that 'ree
whose roots pierced though the enrlh. whose
uunk was Of the color OF blood. and vvboaa
branches hled the utmost corners Of the heavens.
ihls outburst seemed to have relieved tha
mountain; Tor the tremors were now ess violen,
though me terrible noise still droned IN The air'
the earth and sea. And now from the hasa ~
the tree three white streams slowly cren, into A.
many chasms, against the walls of which nlnved
the fckeriDg glow OF burning lava. The column
OF smoke and fame was still hurled inward and