The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-08-12
An ERUPTION Of Ftna.

After about three hours climbing we
got to within couple of miles of the
crater itself. 1t is at the side of Etna,
you know, not near the top, that this
eruption has broken out, and we got on
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 indescribable
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 enor-
nous cratur, throwing out flames and
throwing 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, imag-
inc 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 down.
ward in q mass for miles, and looking
like an enormous sea of red-hot coke.
The width across the lava from 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 a
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
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, say, Quidenham
Church, and this rock suddenly split
in 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 mile in about three-quarters of an
hour We waited there until nearly
midnight, as we could not venture
down until the moon got up, and then
we reluctantly left this magnificent
sight, which, as 1 tell you, no descrip-
tion can give you any idea of. AS we
went up we had all gone into little
house to see it, and thought it was un-
pleasantly 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 it
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 go up to see the lower end of
the lava, stay there a few minutes, and
60 down again; but the way to do it is
to go right high up, arriving by day
light, and then stay there to see it by
night and watch the changes going on.
1t was glorious.