Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1886-06-20
TIE ERUPTION OF ETNA.
An Witness Two Miles Distant
Describes the Scene.

the Dceues
Lord Bury sends to the London Times
an extract from a private letter de-
scribing the eruption Of 1Etna. The writer
is engineer in charge of the Palermo
Corleone railway. His letter is dated
Catania, May Oath:
"After about three hours climbing
we got within couple miles Of the cra-
ter itself. 1t IS at the side Of Btna,
you know, not near the top, that this
eruption has broken out, and we got
onto bit Of high ground overlooking
the whole scene. 1t was still daylight
when we got up there, so that we saw
the whole thing by daylight. 1t was
the most glorious and Undesirable
sight ever saw in my life. 1t is per-
fectly impossible to describe it, as no
one can have any conception Of what it
is like until they see it, and also until
they see it from where we did, which
was on high ground overlooking
nearly the whole Of it. At the top
is this enormous crater, and throw
ing up stones some hundreds Of
yards with a continual roar, like any
number Of battles going on, and just
below is another mouth from which the
lava comes, travelling at tremendous
pace. 1t divides into several streams
and follows the valleys. Now, imagine,
from where we were that night, with
our backs to Catania, what we saw. On
our right this enormous flame going
hundreds of feet into the air, making the
whole sky bright red, and all down
past us from our right and extending
down miles to the left streams of red
hot lava moving downward in q mass
for miles, and looking like an enormous
sea of red-hot coke. The width across
the lava where we were was, perhaps,
three or four miles, and it started about
two miles above US and flowed some
four miles or so below us, so you must
imagine sea Of angry. red-hot lava five
or six miles long and three or four wide,
and about thirty or forty feet deep, but
all Of it bright red. You can Judge
whether it was sight worth seeing. /
would not have missed it for worlds.
the lava is not liquid, as most people
suppose, but consists Of many millions
of large and small blocks of rocky
looking stuff rolling onward. We saw
one huge rock of old lava standing in
the middle of the stream OF lava, which
was divided by it and ran around it.
The rock was about the size Of (Ssy)
Quidenham church; and this rock sud-
denly split into two parts. The smaller
half crumbled up, and the other half was
carried bodily down with the stream
slowly and steadily. We watched it
until we left, and it moved about three
quarters Of a mile in about three quar-
tiers Of an hour. We waited there IN
til nearly midnight, as we could rot
venture down until the moon got up,
and then we reluctantly left this mag
nifcent sight, which, as | tell You, no
description can give you any idea Of.
AS we went up we had all gone into a
little house TO see it, and walked round
it, and thought it was unpleasan,ly
close to the lava. Well, as we came
down this house was in flames and caught
by the stream. In many places we had
to take different paths, so quickly had
the lava spread as 1t came down; and
from below it is awful quite close to it,
to see this mass, thirty or forty feet
high, coming slowly toward you. We
were up near the crater nearly four
hours. We saw other people 60 up to
see the lower end of the lava, stay there
a few minutes, and go down again bu,
the way to DO it is to 60 right high up,
arriving by daylight, and then stay
there TO see it by night and watch the
changes going on. twas glorious"