Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-06-12

NC 1scOcuS LfuPtlOn Oh Et0S.
Inc eruption Of Mt Etna, which was going
on with great violence two weeks ago, was
thus described in q telegram to q London
paper:
huge stones are launched into the air from
the volcano to an immense height. No titled
land has as yet been injured. One chestnut
WOOD has been surrounded by streams Of lava
constant earthquakes, with terrible subter-
ranean noises like thunder. Many dwellings
been no human victim. The sight from Catania
Is 1ndescribably grand and tremendous, and
erEwos are constantly gazing at me awful
minds min Of the people; Nc such eruption has
The London Standard says:
There is something majestic about Etna.
trees we can have elsewhere, but black, lonely
De seen In regions harassed, as this has been. by
constant eruption of burning materials and
molten rock. The ashes are of dazzling white
ness, and though In winter the snow and Ice lie
thick the fire and the noxious gases seething
through the porous soil are ever contending for
the mastery. The view from the summit of
Etna is indescribably grand. The sunrise is
magnificent, and when once bathed in the Ital-
ian daylight the scene is enhancing. The noun
tain, with its circuit OF one hundred and eighty
miles, Is the one prominent feature In the Sicil-
ian landscape, and from its lofty summit, ten
radius OF Que hundred and fifty miles, COM
prising an area larger than Ireland, can be
scanned. All Sicily is spread before the eye as
north the Faro of Messina, the Neptunian
Mountains and the Lipari Islands, while to.
wards the west there is little difficulty in MAX
ing out the Pizzo of Cosleone. and Cammarata,
and the Esadian Isles immersed in u sea
which is as blue as the great shadow OF Etna is
purple:
at is hard to imagine that this volcano,
'famoso terrible, IMMENSE the wonder of
every age and the theme of a hundred poets
ana historians, has been In almost constant
eruption since the earliest period at which
books take notice of it: Pindars picture OF the
rivers of fire vomited forth from its Utmost
caverns and the floods of fire that gave only
smoke III the day time, but in the dark ness took
the form OF sheets OF crimson fire rolling down
description OF the scenes that have been wit
messed many time during the twenty-four
centuries which have passed since the Theban
poet composed choral songs for Hero, of SYRIA
cuse. The forge OF Vulcan has always been
lighted, unless, indeed, the TACT that Homer
makes no mention OF its volcanic character
when he brings the mariners of Ulysses past
IT is to be accepted as any proof OF the con-
trary. Thrice before the Christian era there
and 1869 there have been stupendous displays
OF the dormant fury OF Etna. On the last of
these dates Monterossi was burned, twenty
seven thousand people were rendered home
less, and many lost their lives. In 1893 a COM
bined earthquake and eruption resulted in
the loss of from sixty to one hundred thou
there have been more or less serious outbreaks.
The discharge OF ashes and lava is usually pre-
SSOSN W al cal tuNuahSs hS VI LAC pISSSuC VIVA
sion. Loud explosions warn the Sicilians of
what is coming. Riits and 'bocche del Juoco'
rmouths OF hre) open in the mountain side;
SMOKE sand, cinders and ashes follow, until
they form cones in one or two places, through
which last OF all the boiling lava pours, and
then ~ Monte is soon again at rest. 1t is well
that, of the outbreaks recorded, only very
small minority have been violent, and though
some have lasted ior several weeks, they have,
as IA rule, been of the comparatively harmless
character which it is to be hoped the present
Will be. Looking at the Etna OF to-day, the
tourist who remembers his 'StrabO' can scarcely
imagine that it has undergone any change since
the time he wrote. The lower slopes covered
with forests and fields, the vines hOurishing in
the fertile volcanic soil, and the upper noun
tain bare and ash-cOyered in summer and laden
with snow in winter, are just as they were two
thousand years ago. The woods are as green
the CHAIR d, blackened, melancholy waste,
crown'd by the awful peak, is as desolate as
ever, and unless the character of the volcano
changes. the historian OF an equally distant era
Will be able to take for his text Matthew Ar
nold'S lines about