The Hickman courier., 1874-09-11
MT. ETNA.
The Mountain Threatens am Eruption
Soon.

Ime mOuntatn Threatens am Eruption
soon.
The latest intelligence from the ex-
tensive workshops under Mount Etna,
show how little the gods care for the
vicissitudes of the mortals. Prof. Syl-
vestri, who has been Watching since
May, recently passed two days and
nights on the summit OF the cone of
Etna, and concluded from what he saw
that at no very distant date there must
be another explosion.
Certain it is that the indications Just
now are very strong that what our old
friend Pindar fancifully called the pill
! lar of heaven will, before the summer
is well over, have another notch cut in
to it and added to the long line that
was begun way bach before the frozen
war. Seven or eight times that we
know of before the christian era, old
Etna, after growing for awhile over its
internal agonies, belched forth its over
load and spread its lava over the sur
rounding country. Since then at inter-
walls other eruptions have occurred, but
the violence of nature is not too much
for the recuperative powers of time. and
in many-places gardens baADm over the
solidified fields of lava. is true that
some six thousand feet Jove the sea
there is still cold and desolate zone
of the mountain, which spreads out in
broad tracts, which are rough and
black with the naked lava and scorie,
or white with drifts of snow, over three
Thousand feet of which the traveller
must pick his way to reach the cone,
and for thousand feet below which on
ly the hardy mountain goats can find
means of livelihood. But below this
comes the woody district, which on the
north side skirts down 90 within half a
mile of the foot of the mountain, and
almost into that delightful region at
the base of Etna known TO the people
Of the neighborhood as the rc0ione
clllta. In this region of cultivation, in
,,;,,,. -.-~,ssi --:1 81 the deeomposed lava,
5 vines, gram, fruits, and arofnu1io nsss--
and all through ft towns and x-iIIaoas
are clustered. These villages are IfabIe
TO be swept away or buried = a sea Of
burning lava-the fate Of m Nv of their
the peopl8.re famil-
lar with danger, they know no other
home, and the attractions Of the climate
and soil make them forget their con-
slant peril. Here Catania, an ancient
and beautiful city almost at the base Of
the mountain. was verwhelmed a CEN
tury before Christ. A thousand wears
later the city was again buried, and fif-
teen Thousand lives we're destroyed.
Two hundred years ago the same city
was again destroyed, and the flood of
ava poured over it far out into the sea,
orming promontory which serves as
/ natural break water. But Catania
lgain emerged from it's bed Of ashes and
ava, and from this ill-fated city now
comes the news Of the suspicious COM
notions in the breast of Etna, that may,
perhaps, again bring destruction up
N it.
II A.
'een over fifty violent eruptions. Dur
ng the Roman empire there were but
wo eruptions, nearly two hundred
ears apart. About the middle of the
lst century an eruption poured forth
Drrents of hot water. During the
resent century there have been about
dozen eruptiOns. One beginning
anuary 81, 1865, continued for several
lonths, and caused much alarm, but
rought people from all parts Of the
orld TO witness the spectacle. Five
ears ago, in September, 1869, an erup-
on from the principal crater sent
'rrent of lava over the Yale de Bore,
ut since that time Etna has been qniet
7yond the ordinary and continual dis Im
Irbance, until the present. Since MAJ
ie forces have been gathering, and u w
10 observations of Prof. Sylvestri are
curate, and his conclusions are cor
ct, this year may witness one of the
ightiest efforts of this uproarious old
ountain to burst the shell that smoth-
8 its hidden fires. The spectacle
ould no doubt be very fine, but con- I
deriDg the annoyances of the people
that region during tho saes- -ss--H---a-5f
lree Thousand years we wctssfu rather
ave i. indehnitely postponewe 1~onge VI We
tins Il, 4 Apssen;c0s sso y0sas Of thYbuSMs%s 90
Now letLot Etns cool iass.sl.Ss., N I.
Aol. Coz. -.Longndk In3EzESs