The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1899-02-23

atOuHu. Nfedt CLOUDS OF dense White
steam issued from its mouth and rolled
up in huge folds. or sank back as IL
sucked in by the crater 10 be spouted
out again in furiousgushes. with rare
fragments of lava. The second and
thinrd craters We're so close to one an
other that the copious materials they
elected mingled and heaped into a
single cone.
The explosions of the various vents
were quite Independent. Those Of the
fourth crater, which was also the small
est. were more frequent and more noisy.
Duhing its explosions it often pulled
out beautiful rings of white steam.
which assembled in the blue sky above,
whirling and twisting, then gradually
widened. broke up. and vanished. The
/ steam from the last crater. which also
4 formed rings, was much darker, be-
cause of the greater quantity of dust
which it carried.
1t was impossible to climb up these
eruptive cones and look down into their
boiling cauldrons; but, remembering the
J
ri at that very place a hundred years
before, we knew from the PUSHES Of
vapor, from the vollsys of red-hot
scoriae, from inaction itself, how the
lava swelled and rose within the crater,
how it boiled and burst in a thousand
to rise and burst and fall again and
again.
The clouds of steam which shot out
of that Titans battery, now scanty,
now copious, now white. now black
whirling, twisting, weltering, mingling.
amassing. expanding. unfurling and
dispensing, filled the old crater, swept
round the eruptive cones, curled over
the edge of the Sciara, and then scared
high up into the air. glittering and
vanishing in the blazing sunshine. I
stared with wonder and delight at these
mist fairies dancing with ceaseless
change within the enchanted circle of
the crater till l was dizzy. The at
mosphere of the abyss is terrible. ire
sistible. Empedokles, the wonderful
NS1NilNi VI EAhldSdcs plullSGu lliNO kAS
furnace of Eetna, and nobody knew it
till the burning mountain threw up one
of the prophets brazen shoes.
We sat long time on the sand eating
grapes, while the dust from the crater
poured over US in a slow and silent
rain of minute particles of augite, fell
spar, magnetic and Divine thot coated
our eyebrows and boards, filled our
pockets, and drifted down our necks.
One large crystal fell so sharply on
the back of my left hand that it made
it bleed.
steep ash slope extended from the
upper edge of the crater to the feet Of
the active cones. 1t was strewed with
the smoking scoriae which the cones
were continually ejecting. Anxious to
get nearer view. and having carefully
planned my movements, l suddenly
started down the precipitous slope,
frightening my companions out of their
wits. Arrived at the bottom, l found
that member of the party had fol-
lowed me. He was running to the left
into the very jaws of death l yelled
to him, Don't go there, you will be
killed" Then he came toward me and
told him not to mind the four cones
to the right, but to beware of the little
spit-fire on the left. Meanwhile the
rest of the party were calling to us to
come back. A loud rumble echoed
within the crater. and the earth shook
as If about to open under our feet and
plunge US in the depths below. Don't
run away" l said to my companion,
but look up at the falling stones, and
may God have mercy on u.s." Our posi-
ton was frightful. The cone on the left
: went off like a mortar, but a mortar
with a mouth fifty yards across, and
not one, but hundreds of shells stream
ed UP into the sky. One glance at this
and then upward into the air. Down
plunged the ragged fragments of half
cooled lava from a height of 200 feet
or more. Look out" shouted our
friends from above; for the scoriae had
fallen above and behind us, and were
now rolling and bouncing down the
loose, steep ash slope. 1t must have
been a ludicrous sight to see US as we
hoped, skipped and jumped out of this
avalanche, while all the time fine sand
and lapilli drove down upon us like a
shower of hail 1t was over at last and
we ran as hard as we could up the face
OF the slope lest another explosion
should catch us on the way. We re-
ceived hearty congratulations from our
companions; il was something to have
passed unscathed through the volcanic
fires.
We saw none of those gorgeous sub
limations which usually gather in red,
green and bright yellow patches round
the fumaroles of lava streams and ex-
hausted craters; but we found long,
fine threads of dark olive color scat
tered over the scortae like spiders web.
They were of glass and exceedingly
brittle; volcanic glass spun out of the
molten lava as it whirled through the
air Such like filaments are very COM
mon at Kilauea, the great lake-volcano
of Hawaii, where they are called Pele's
hair. after the name of the goddess who
was once believed to dwell in that great
crater.
We also found crystals of pyroxene in
countless numbers round the crater, Of
ten in beautiful stellated groups or
other combinations. They had fallen
out Of the lava fragments in which they
were inclosed at the time of the explo-
sion.
From the summit OF Stromboli a
great cloud of fire scared high into
the sky, while the eruptive cones fired
into its very heart huge volleys of red
hot stones. The lava flowing from the
western crater mingled With the pour
ing scorae and rushed down the Sci
ara in avalanches of red blazing rock,
so that the whole mountain seemed
one burning pile. The crater roared
and Numbered as it spouted into the
foaming surf. The grandsst display Of
6ravOrIs tho bivOing Of citV the