The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1901-10-10

making for the deck, to be in time for
muster. In answer to my query, one of
the mizzen topmen Informed me that we
were in plain sight of Str0mboli, hence
hastily dressed and went on deck.
1t was a glorious night. A soft Sum-
mer breeze swept inboard, tanning away
the somewhat oppressive heat of the day.
The moon had sunk below the horizon,
leaving countless myriads of shining stars
to stare sweetly and calmly down into a
waveless waste that held captive the
truant light and made a glowing firma-
ment of the peaceful sea. The sheets and
dowGhauls swayed idly in the scented
breeze. The great masts, towering far
upward into the starry sky, seemed to be
sleepless sentinels assuring US of safety.
What a picture of heavenly peacei How
still You hear rope tapping idly against
the sturdy mast; the musical swish of wa
ter thrust aside by the blowing stem; you
feel the pulsing beat of the engine as you
would the heartbeats of a frightened bird
held captive against your bosom.
| walk forward upon the fOrecastle
and look eagerly ahead. l see a mass of
smoky vapor slowly rising above the dis
tant waters, and l know that Mother
| Nature is raising a curtain for a back
ground and soon she will open her exhibit
| ton of subterranean life.
There it is! A great, red glow upon
the face of the heavens, and a sheet OF
flame shoots upward, lighting up sea and
| sky with a ruddy glare. What a solemn
monitor is that grim fountain of firei The
armed sentry walking their narrow beats
may cry "All is WELL" but there in that
gloomy mountain is flaming tongue that
for the last 1000 years at least has been
telling its tale of awful war of elements
beneath our feet.
Stromboli is a conical-shaped island, one
of the Lipari group. 1t shelves down into
the water to the depth of 5000 feet, and
rises up into the air a like distance Its
crater, whence issues yon sheet of fame
is not, like that of Vesuvius, at the sum
NIT, but down some 900 feet from the
top. The mountain is entirely of volcanic
origin, having been formed from the scoria
emitted from the depths below in the
slow march of ages.
StrombOli has for the past 90 centurie.
been the primary schoolroom for the study
of volcanic action. 1t is, | believe, tn,
only volcano in constant and period,
operation.
| tried to go down into the crater o.
| Mount Vesuvius to see the workings Of
| Natures foundry, but the guide and
timorous German gentleman forcibly helC
ME back, telling me with faces gloomy
with awe assumed. | fear, ON the part
of the lazy guide that Mr.. Pliny hat
lost his life in just such 4 foOlbardy at
tempt. l rather pettishly informed tn,
guide that the gentleman thus consumed
with curiosity had been born about tn,
beginning of the Christian Era, hence h.
should now be allowed to rest quiet in hi
ashes and newer samples handed out L
adventurous travellers.
StrombOli, however, affords n bette
field. A traveller, DIR. Judd, believe, tell
of his explorations. The Doctor Chamber
ed upon a shelving rock that commando
a view Of the crater and saw down int
the smoking chasm.
He saw there a molten mass, bubblin
and seething like boiling pitch In a calk
er's caldrOn. The agitation would con
tinue for 10 to 10 minutes. A thin vapo
would then commence to ascend; the bull
bles would come faster, and grow large
and larger, when suddenly there would b
an explosion, the sound being very muc
like that produced by a locomotive blow
ing off steam. Great volumes of water
Yapor are thus thrown violently upward
carrying fragments of melted matter t
: the hight of 400 to 500 feet. Most @
the matter thus elected falls back int
the crater with loud, rafting noise, bu
= some of the scoria runs, in semi-liqui
z state, down the mountainsde into the Sc;
( The experience of years, if not Of Ger
turtles, has demonstrated the fact tina
l there is direct subterranean connectio
to be some mysterious connection with tn
. condition of the atmosphere and the fore
, and direction of the winds. This Their,
d fore seems 10 me to be an ideal place fC
$ some student of the 10Th century to eyoly
!. natural laws and principles now burie
l. under q mountain of childish theorie
i Electricity, heat; these are the two p,
Il tent agents to be investigated by the ST.
y dents of today, for therein lie some
/ the unknown quantities in Natures equ
e ton.
It Some such. thoughts as these, cloude
II by youth and ineXperience, surged throue
n my boyish brain, as, having climbed L
e into the main top, lay watching the ii
full ebullitions.
IT While thus employed, my attention w:
e attracted by a movement on the part
one of the topmen, Billy Foster by nam
h II say, Billy Mccarthy" said he to Il
r Captain of the top, "do you know, yond
4, spouter reminds me of the night VIII,
ie we tried to pass the batteries off Pc
< Hudson in the Mississippi"
n AYE" answered Billy, dewey W:
If your First Luff then, too, warent hep
N Yes, so he was Say, Billy, / am
l. tellin you, that if ever we go to HELP
s (which God, in His mercy, forbid
y muttered Mccarthy, feryently crossiI
d himself
lie I'VE should not find it much wors
than that night on the river"
el mo, l reckon not" answered NJ
is Cartby.
n Tell me about it, Billy" said 1, b