The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-04-06
ASCENT oF MOUNT ETNA.
Volcanic Formations Soen-SteamIng
of Lava.

The morning of the twentieth was
light and clear, and the unelouded sum-
init of the volcano was like polished ala
baster. After an early breakfast the
guide and myself. mounted on mules,
took the road for Monte Gemellaro.
| leaving On our left the old lava stream
OF 1859, which looked like an unused rad
way embankment, rising about twenty
hve feet n nelgnt, we soon came TO the
forked end of the stream, or sclarra, OF
1886. To our ,left, lowered the double
headed cone of Monte Rosso, with its
retinue of monticles around its base. The
vines were still in full leaf, and the apple
trees in blossom, but We soon rode INTO
a cooler zone. where the vines had just
begun to leaf out, and they formed the
only vegetation, except clumps OF yellow
lowered broom, with copses of 'leafess
slender chestnuts. Over the reddish vol
canic soil ran nimble lizards-aot the
beautiful green ones of the regions below
but, chameleon-lille in their adaptation
to their environment, they were duh red
dish-brown.
launching at the last house, an empty
wooden structure, we soon passed beyond
the groves of low slender chestnut trees,
above all vegetation into the desert zone,
d44l atiA lii0 IA
crater cone of Monte Gemefaro. The
mountain or hill is an ash heap or cinder
cone, the loose material likened by M.
Emile Chalk to coke or black powdery
s~coriae, with lava underneath, and 1t
rises upward of four hundre and fifty
feet above the sides of Mount Etna, with
a diameter Of about six hundred feet.
The crater is estimated to be one hun-
bred and twenty-five feet deep, with two
assures at the bottom three or four
yards wide. 1t was named after the dis
tinguished geologist and student. OF vol
canlsm, the late Professor Gemeliaro, OF
Catania.
on the way up we passed small assures
still steaming, and their edges encrusted
with deposits of sulphur and arSenlS;
Such assures are called solfataras. small
heated masses of rock and clay, sSlll
warm, lay scattered. about. The structure
of the inner walls OF the crater IS simple,
crater of ~Popocatepetl. Under the ped
Of ashes the rim OF the cone IS made up
away from the centre down the sizes, In
fact, a crater Of this sort Is. FORMED py
the upthrust of masses of V ana the
repeated showers of stones, bombs, ashes
and laptlli, or coarse grayeiy ashes iall-
ing down vertically over the vent, give
the regular %conicaI shape. Of the crater
the crater are formed by loose ashes roll
ing down the incline of the irregular vent
OF ISSuTG al Lie DOLtOll1, AlASA p hSPs
clear by the, passage Of steam and
showers of ashes during. the progress of
an eruption. The origin of the. lava
stream which threatened Nicolosi and
the other towns below was mostly COW
cred up by the thick layer of ashes.
In telling of the eruption which threat-
ened the town he states that while 1t had
DECEASED on sunday. yet on Monday
morning it broke forth with great vio-
lence and a fresh rater sent out a stream
of lava one hundred and fifty metres
wide and tw~enty-three deep. which
flowed down at the rate of one hundred
and sixty to one hundred and ninety feet
an hour toward Nieolosi. On Monday
evening the news was very disqu1etlng.
The violence of the eruption was then
greatly increasing. and Nicolosi. seemed
considerable distance is described as Re-
sembling a continuous ~cannonade. On
the nineteenth Professor AMIGO recorded
ninety-two earthquakes, on the Following
day only twenty, but afterward the num-
Der rose from twenty-five to thirty,
t~wenty-seven, twenty-five, and nnally 10
ffty-two on the twenty-ffth. The erup,
ton reached its height on May 81, and
the people were SO alarmed that the town
was evacuated.
| ened Nicolosi divided into two, one adj
vancing toward Altarelli, and the other
descending on the east side OF Monte
Rosso, and on jun 3 stopped WITHIN
three hundred and s~eyenty-three metres
his was in direct answer to the prayers
of the clergy, who with their parish
toner's in solemn procession marched, to-
ward the advancing lava when the dan
ger seemed most imminent.-Popular Sci
ence Monthly.