Columbia gazette. [volume] (Columbia, Tuolumne County, Calif.) 1852-1855, 1854-10-14
III ItSG B J. 4 ANY.
ETNA-A THRILLING TALE.

Among the wondrous sights on earth,
the volcano of Etna will always hold a
just pre-eminence. Renowned by past
history, sublime by its elevation, its form,
and the awful scenery of unknown ter
ror that lie concealed within its bosom,
the Sicilian volcano will always be view
ed with the deepest, the most solemn
awe. It was with such feelings and
such thoughts as these that l began to
ASCEND the valeano on the morning of
the 9th of May, le49. had left Cat
ania on the day before, in order to visit
this wonderful spot. I did not wish to
glance carelessly upon it-no for to me
there was always something reverend,
something almost divine, in connection
with this great mass of upheaved lava,
which led me to look earnestly at its
rugged sides. l wished to ascend, to
view from its summit the fairest regions
on earth to glance down into those un-
fathomable depths where fire, fire in all
its terror, forever dwells, forever strug-
giles
1t was with slow steps that 1 ascend
ed the cone, after the patient and hardy
ponies had been dismissed. I had been
an invalid, and the fatigue of climbing
up the steep and rocky declivity might
we'll have daunted me. But, after many
restings and many haltings, was able to
attain the summit.
The summit Good heavens can
ever forget the delirium, the transport
of JOY, which the boundless prospect
there awakened within me, Can [ ever
forget the glimpse which I first caught
Of all the glories and all the horrors of
Nature, mingled together in such fear
full unison!
Far away on one side spread the fer
tile plains, the green meadows, and the
gentle valleys of Sicily. There we're
streams glancing and flashing in the sun
as they wandered to the sea, with ten
thousand labyrinthian turnings lakes
whose CLASSY surface showed not ruff
file, not ripple there were terraces up
on the sides of hundred hills, where
vineyards were planted, and where the
trellised vines passed along, all green,
all blooming there were groves Of or
ange trees, amid the dark green foliage
of which the golden oranges peeped
forth like the flashes of phosphorescent
light in midnight sea there were long
avenues Of expresses, Of acacias, Of no
bic trees of many kinds, amid which
kingly assemblages at times could be
seen the noble summit Of some stately
palm, as it lowered on high above the
others.
And the seattle wide, the boundless,
the deep,the blue Mediterranean-there
it spread away, on the other side, as
far as the eye could reach, as thoughts
could run--glorious as
" The dashing,
Silver flashing
Surges of San Salvador"
But turn aside-and there, beneath,
far beneath, lies an abyss like that of
which Milton has sung in sublimest
mortal strains.
1 paused upon the brink, and, shud-
dering, l gazed downtown! The
thick, and funeral volumes of tortuous-
ly-ascending smoke come seething up
ward, as from cauldron. It escaped
as from . myriad Of creviees in the
rocky, preeipitous sides it poured forth
from behind projections, and united with
the vast mass which came sublimely up
ward from the unfathomable depths.
Here, upon the sandy, rocky edge,
where sulphur and crumbled lava, and
pummice-stone, were all mingled togeth-
er to form horrid soil, here sat, and
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