The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1899-02-23
FROM THE cRArER's MoUTH-
Thrilling Description by an AuarI.
can who Felt StromboIi's Rraath

can who Felt StromboIrs Rreatb'
have climbed the rugged sides .,
stromboli and have felt its fiery vol. !
oanic breath on my cheek and now.
70 paraphrase famous remark. l saw. /
See stromboli and die" for the world |
contains no more exciting experience
TO describe what we saw. one sbouIa
write like a god
we lett Messina on a small screw
steamer plying usually from Messina
70 Reggie She had been placed at the
disposal Of the party at very small cost
ana was all our own for one week.
Mattresses and blankets, provisions
and luggage, Photographic apparatus
and cooking utensils were soon tumbled
on board, and away we steamed to ex-
plore the wondrous Fire islands.
we landed by the hamlet of St.
tlncenzo on beach of jet black sand.
on which were Laughing two old fisher
men, smoking their morning pipes. Our
path ran between thick hedges of
prickly bears, across a tract of level
ground studded with small vineyards
and twinkling white houses; then it as
cended to the postoffice on a hill called
st. Bartolo. Here the postmaster served
us an excellent breakfast. While the
food was being prepared we gathered
bright hexagonal scales of crystallized
iron which had shot out in thick groups
like lichens. within the cavities of a
soft and crumbling lava of a dull brick
color which lay close by.
After cheerful meal we began our
ascension to the summit At first the
path wound up the east side of the
island, which falls abruptly to the sea;
but above the semaphore station which
was then being constructed, it led up a
broken and rugged ascent, between two
narrow lodges of thorny bushes, which
obliged US to climb in single file. The
sun had risen high in the heavens, and
it glared and burnt fiercely. but we
sweated up CALAMITY, dragging our
selves with much labor and pain over
the loose stones. Now and again we
met peasant women running down with
large baskets of grapes upon their
heads; their feet were protected by
sandals of goatskin secured to the leg
by strings.
At about 500 feet from sea level we
found ourselves so much exhausted by
fatigue and the difficulties of the road,
that we sat down in order to recover
our breath. We had been climbing
amidst rich vineyards, trained over
horizontal trellis of bamboo hardly a
foot from the ground.
After a short rest we patiently re-
sumed our path. which was extremely
steep, and led through other vineyards
gradually becoming more difficult until
it ended in plantation of willows.
which extends all round the cone, mark
| ing, as it were, the limits of the vine
region. Then. suddenly. upon turning
behind a large rock. we came in sight
of the Sciara del Fuoco.
We halted to see the Sciara. 1t is a
scene of awful dreariness and grand
eur. Imagine a vast triangular slope
of jet black sand. extending from the
| eruptive crater to the sea with an in
cline of about fifty degrees. 1t stretches
between two diverging ridges formed
! by vast agglomerations. among which
| protrude denuded eruptive dykes and
large masses of bright yellow and rusty
lava. Ever and anon, hot scoriae, shot
out of the crater, fell on the smooth
sheet of ashes and rolled over and over
down TO the sea, raising little clouds of
| dust.
We did not stop long: the sight of
the Sciara had generated an irresistible
| desire to get nearer to the crater. We
scrambled and clambered over the most
difficult and broken ground that can
be imagined, and at length we reached
the crest OF the ascent.
The summit of StromboH consists of
two peaks united by a narrow ridge of
sand. along which it would be danger
Gus to walk If the foot did not sink to
the ankle, and thus get firmer hold.
This knife-edge of sand Is the common
wall of the two old craters dismantled
toward the sea.
The now active crater of Stromboli
! opens in the north side of the island at
about 500 feet below the highest sum
nit. within one of the ancient extinct
craters filled by recent materials up to
Its outer lip. 1t is a basin some hum
dred yards across and sixty-five feet
deep. For hundreds of years it has
kept Its actual position like a parasitic
crater, nor can it rise higher, having
no support to the northwest. on which
side a tremendous landslip occurred at
some remote period. carrying away the
crater wall and forming the Sciara.
The reuptive cones would soon return
to the mountain top If they could build
a great buttress over the Sciara, but
this is prevented by the breakers that
batter necessarily against the shore.
The good folks OF Stromboli sur
prised at the fact that not even a
narrow beach has ever formed at the
foot OF the Sciara by the immense
amount of materials which have ever
and continuously poured down this side
of the cone, imagine that, in this place
the sea has no bottom. and that the
volcano sucked in from below the ma
terials hurled out above.
In 1744, after an unusually abundant
election of scoriae. a narrow ledge ap-
peared at this place. 1t lasted about
four months, and was then again
washed away by the sea. Thus the
waves perpetually, and often with
stormy rage, destroy the work of this
great Danaid.
From the ridge on the mountain top