Year: 1874

The Mountain Threatens an Eruption


SOoHs


The latest intelligence from the ex-
tensive workshops under Mount Etna
show how little the gods care for the
vicissitudes of the mortals. Prof. Svl-
vestri, who has been Watching since
May, recently passed two days ana
nights on the summit of the cone of
Etna, and concluded from what he saw
that at no very distant date there must
be another explosion.


Certain 1t is that the indications lust
now are very strong that what our old
friend Pindar fancifully called tie pill
lar of heaven will, before the summer
is well over, have another notch cut in
to it and added to the long line tina;
was begun way back before the frozen
war. Seven or eight times that we
know of before the christian era. old
Etna, after growing for awhile over its
internal agonies, belched forth its over
load and spread its lava over the sur
rounding country. Since then at inter-
walls other erupiOns have occurred, but
the violence OF nature Is not too much
for the reeuperative powers of time, and
IN many places gardens bloom over the
sOlidified fields of lava. It is true that
some six thousand feet above the sea

of the mountain, which spreads out in
broad tracts, which ara rough and
black with the naked lava and scoriss.
or white with drifts of snow, over three
thousand feet of which the traveller
must pick his way to reach the cone,
and for a thousand feet below which on
ly the hardy mountain goats can find a
means of livelihood. But below this
comes the woody district, which on the
north side skirts down to within half a
mile of the foot of the mountain, and
almost into that delightful region at
the base of Etna known to the people
of the neighbOThCod as the TegiOne
c1tltG. In this region of cultivation, in
the rich soil of the decomposed lava,
are fourishing plantations of olives,
vines, grain, fruits, and aromatic herbs,
and all through it towns and villages
are clustered. These villages are liable
to be swept away or buried in a sea of
burning lava-the fate of many of their
predecessors-but the people are famil-
lar with danger, they know no other
home, and the attractions of the climate
and soil make them forget their con-
slant peril. Here Catania, an ancient
and beautiful city almost at the base of
the mountain, was overwhelmed CEN
tury before Christ. A thousand years
later the city was again buried, and fif-
teen thousand lives were destroyed.
Two hundred years ago the same city
was again destroyed, and the flood of
lava poured over it far out into the sea,
forming promontory which serves as
a natural break-water. But Catania
again emerged from it's bed of ashes and
lava, and from this ill-fated city now
comes the news of the suspicious COM
motions in the breast of Etna, that may,
perhaps, again bring destruction up
on it.


Since the christian era there have
been over fifty violent erUptiOns. Dur
ing the Roman empire there were but
two eruptions, nearly two hundred
years apart. About the middle of the
last century an eruption poured forth
torrents of hot water During the
present century there have been about
dozen eruptions. One beginning
January 81, 1866, continued for several
months, and caused much alarm, but
brought people from all parts of the
world to witness the spectacle. Five
years ago, in September, 1869, an erup-
ton from the principal crater sent a
torrent of lava over the Vale de BOUe,
but since thatSfime Etna has been qniet
beyond the ordinary and continual dis
turbance, until the present. Since May
the forces have been gathering, and if
the observations of Prof. Sylvestri are
accurate, and his conclusions are cor.
rect, this year may witness one of the
mightiest efforts of this uproarious old
mountain to burst the shell that smoth-
ers its hidden fires. The spectacle
would no doubt be very fine, but con.
sidering the annoyances of the people
of that region during the past two or
three thousand years we would rather
have it indefinitely postponed. If we
had any voice in the matter we would
say, in the words of the brother of
Titus Anaronicus


Now let hot Etna cool in Sicily"


-TO7L Con- -,TOlETl0Z