Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1892-09-01

churches to the piazza, and there prayed
for the desolating flood TO be arrested
The stream was described by another
eyewitness, who assembled the mount
ain and looked down upon the crater. as .
sea of bright red angry. lava. mot IL
guild, as most people suppose, but con-
sisting of many millions of large and
small blocks of rocky1ooking stuff roll
ing onward" The eruption, however,
slackeDed early in June, and finally
ceased on the 5th, after engulfng con-
vent and many woods and vineyards, at
point only q few hundred yards of the
nearest house in Nicolosi For some
days after. however, earthquakes OF
considerable violence continued TO be
felt throughout the Etna region, caus-
ing much terror. and in one place they
destroyed several houses.
The volcanoes majestic height Is less
imposing to the imagination than its
vast extent, for III Monte" has an area
OF 462 square miles TIVE cities, Cata-
mia and Aci Reale, and sixty-two small
towns cluster upon the slopes OF the
awful mountain, whose entrails are fire,
and whose breath is flame and light
ming. Catania has a population of
nearly 100, 600, and Aci Reale of about
aS, 900.
Nine miles beneath the crater, which
is 1000 feet in depth. three miles in
width lit was rent anew into great
assures by the last eruption) the habit
able zone commences, and is tenauted
by 500, 600 souls. Only the Val del
Bove, commencing two miles from the
summit, where Sir Charles Lye1 be-
1ieves there formerly existed a center of
permanent eruption, is altogether ster-
lie now; the other sides of the mount
ain are clothed with trees at the same
level And such trees! Fourteen sep
arate forests form the Regione Selvosa,
and they abound with oak, beech, pine
and poplar, with the chestnut, the lex
and the cork tree Mariposa and Cal
averas cannot beat the ''Castagna di
Cento Cavalli," in the forest OF Carpi-
netto, ON the east side of the mountain,
in whose trunk, through which the
public road now passes, q queen of Ara
gon once took shelter, with suite OF
100 horsemen. The Regione Coltivata,
whose soil consists of decomposed lava,
is lavishly fruitful; of the three regions,
of which the Deserta has the most pow
erful charm for the imagination, Bry-
done says:
Besides the corn, the wine, the oil
the silk, the spice, and delicious fruits
of its lower region; the beautiful forests,
the feclzs, the game, the tar, the cork,
the honey of its second; the snow and
ice of its third-it affords from its cav
erns a variety OF minerals and other
productions, cinnabar. mercury, sui:
phur, alum, nitre and vitriol, so that
the wonderful mountain, at the same
time, produces every necessary and
every luxury of life. +"
The story of the ascent of the mount
ain from whose summit Plato, in his Sc
rene and thoughtful time, and Mr.. Glad
stone, in our troublous days, have, among
many great men, in great wonder,
watched the sunrise, has a strong fas-
cination, because of its wide contrast,
| its stern exactiOn of strength and en-
| durance, and its supreme, awe-inspiriDq
reward-the realization of that which
inspired the ancients and the poets OF
the middle ages From the banana
and the orange groves, from the vine
yards and the palms, through the sever
botanical regions into which the botan
lists have divided the realm protected O
! observation-disclosures ''anlid the billowl
cornfields of her mother, Demeter, anC
the meadow-hoyvers she loved IN girl
hold, are ever found sulphurous ravine
and chasms breathing vapor from thi
pit of Hades''-to the snow-capped crus
that spreads for ten square miles be
tween the awful depth of unquencha bl'
fire and the blue heaven that suddenly
seems to be brought near, the traveller
mounts, with an ever-increasing sens,
of the vastness beyond and around him
-Phi1adelnbia TeIeo-aJh