St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1864-02-18
.3HtIln.

The following description 81. IN eruption
Of Mount Etna, (sicily) IS graphic. i Il i
taken from BaYerd ,Tnyler's travels. Some
eff your readers have perhaps not read it
before. atia1s5le aA1 al :,
y .:Thee. heat Of tic day and Tie continued
,tremor Of the air had lulled me into, a sort
Of dose, when ! was suddenly aroused by, a
cry from the soldier and the stopping OF
the diligences. at the same time there was
. terrible peal Of sound followed by a jar
which must have shaken the whole, island.
We looked np.to 1F;tna, which was in full
view. An immense mass of snow-whitc
smoke had burst up from the crater and
was rising perpendicu1arly into the air, ito
rounded columns 5-apidlyf whirling ,ong
over thssother, yet, urged with such an i'm
petus5 that they could only roll outward
after they had ascenled to an immense
hight. Il might have been one. minute Or
Ave minutes, for | was SO eEtranced by
this wonderful spectacle that !, lost the
sense Of time; but it seemed instantaneous
SO rapid md violent were the effects of the
explosion, when there stood in the air,
based on the summit of tic mountain, o
mass Of smoke four Of, Eve miles high and
shaped precisely like tile Italian pine tree.
Words cannot paint the grandeur Of the
mighty tree It's trunk Of colAmned smoke
one side If which was silyercd b: the sun,
while the other in ,sh adow was liyids with
red fame rose for more than mile be
fore. 1t sent out. its. cloudy boughs.. Then
partingin a. thousand streans,t each Of
which again threw out its branching tufts
ofsmoke, rolling and waving IN the mir, it
stood in intense. relief against the blue of
the sky. ii rounded masses o. 3foliagc
were dazzling ron aone aside, while in the
shadowy depths of the branches, there was
aconstant3 play Of brown, ellow. and crim-
son tints, revealing the central shaft of FIRE.
It was like that tree celebrated by the Scans
dinayian sages, as seen by the mother OF
Harold Hardrada, THAT tree whose roots
pierced through tho earth, whose trunk
was the color Of blood and whose branches
| filled the uttermost corners of the heavens
And now from the base ofsthe tree, three
white streams slowly & cerept from as many
|. separate chasrs, against the wal IS Of which
played theiaickering glow ofglthe burning
lava. s. The column Of smoke and fame was
still hurled upward, and the tree after
standing about ten minutes, d new to ,ine)
Ind awful revelation Of the actiyep forces Of
nature, gradually rose and spread, lost Its
:forns and slowly moved 81 Alright wind
bent over to the eastward The vast belt
Of: smoke al last afcchled over the strait,
here about twenty smilcsswidcF md SINK %
ward tho distant Calabrian shore. As NO
drove under il for several miles Of our way,
the SUI. wds totally obscared ;rthe sky pre-
sented the singular spectacle Sof1twe sllg1lrs
ispheres, Of clear blue, with . belt Of dark
nesssdrawn between. $ There Twas q hot
sulphurous vapor in the air, and showers
sf white ashes fell from time tto time. We
were distant IN d direct line from The scras'
tSr, but The iii was 50 clear that oven unul
der the shadow 81 tho smoke, Eco aid plain.
.ly,5se Tho rivsfis aof lsva flowing aloWn the
sides otsthe volcano. - e. ,ifs 72ilSs'ss