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Show 362 MINOR VOLCANOS ON ETNA. and beech. Above the forest is the de.sert region.' a ~aste of black lava and scorire; where, on a kmd of plam,, rises the cone to the height of about eleven hundred feet, from which ulphureous vapours are continually evolved. The most grand :nd original feature in the physiogn?m~ of Etna ar: the multitude of minor cones which a~e d1stnbuted ov:r 1ts flanks, and which are most abundant m the woody reg10n. These, although they appear but trifling irregul~rities. when viewed from a distance as subordinate parts of so 1mposmg and colossal a mountain, would, nevertheless, be deemed hills of considerable altitude in almost any other region. Without enumerating numerous monticules of ashes thrown out at different points, there are about eighty of these secondary volcanos, of considerable dimensions; ~fty-two on the west and north, and twenty-seven on the east side of E:na. One of the largest, called Monte Minardo, near Bro?te, 1s up.ward~ of seven hundred feet in height: and a double hill near NIColosi called Monti Rossi, formed in 1669, is four hundred and fifty feet high, and the base two miles in circumference; so. that it somewhat exceeds in size Monte N uovo, before described. Yet it ranks only as a cone of the second magnitude amongst those produced by the lateral eruptions of Etna. On looking down from the lower borders of the desert .region, these volcanos present us with one of the most beauttful an.d characteristic scenes in Europe. They afford every variety of height and size, and are arranged in beautiful and picturesque groups. However uniform they may appear when s~en ~rom the sea, or the plains below, nothing can. be mo~e diversified than their shape when we look from above mto their crat~rs,one side of which is generally broken down. There are, mdee?, few objects in Nature more picturesq~e than a woo~ed volcamc crater. The cones situated in the htgher ~arts of the forett zone are chiefly clothed with lofty pines; wh1le those at a lower elevation are adorned with chestnuts, oak, beech, and hol~. The history of the eruptions of Etna, imperfect and mter-rupted as it is, affords, nevertheless, a full insi~ht into t~e ma~: ner in which the whole mountain has successively ~tt~med present magnitude and internal structure. The prmclpal. ;~~: has more than once fallen in, and been reproduced. I~ th it was three hundred and twenty feet high, and fell in a ter e ln!RIE.D CONES ON ETN A, : 363: earthquakes of 1537. In the year 1693, when a violent earth.r quake shook the whole of Sicily, and killed sixty thousand person. s, the cone lost so much of its height , says n occone, that It could not be seen from sever·al places in v ld , h . b ./!' • • a emonc, w cnce It was ewre VIsible. The o-rcater number f · h · h o o erup-· ti Ons • ap1p en eit er from the great crater or from lat 1 d . ' era open~ mgs m t 1e esert reg10n. When hills arc thrown u · th 1111' ddl e zone, an d proJ· ect beyond the general level thP m e d ll 1 h . h . h . , ey gra-ua y ose t e1r mg t durmg subsequent eruptions; for when lava runs down from th: upper parts of the mountain, and encounters any of these hills, the stream is divided, and flows round them so as to elevate the gently-sloping grounds f wh 1. c h t h ey rt·s e. I n t hI'S manner a deduction is often m dr omt · f . a e a once o twenty or thirty feet, or even more from their lte' ht h f h . ' tg . T us, one o t e mmor cones, called Monte Peluso was di · _ . h d . l . d b ' ffil ms e. m a htu e y a great lava-stream which encircled it in 1444; and another current has recently taken the same cou. _ h. h'}} '}1 ' ISe y. et t Is 1 st1 remams four or five hundred feet high . Tl1 ere Is a c?ne called Monte ~ ucilla, near Nicolosi, round the base of whteh severa~ successi;e currents have flowed and showers of as~es f~llen smce the time of history, till at last, during an eruptiOn m 1536, the surrounding plain was so raised, that the top of the cone alone was left projecting above the general level. Monte Nero, situated above the Grotta deH' Capre was in 1766 a~most submerged by a current; and Monte Cap~eolo afforded, m ~he y:ar 1669, a curious example of one of the last s~ages of.obhteratton; fo~ a lava-stream descending on a high r1dge wh1<:h had been bmlt up by the continued superposition of successive lavas, flowed directly into the crater and nearly filled it. 'l'he lava, therefore, of each new lateral' cone tends to detract from the relative height of lower cones above their ~ase: so that the flanks of Etna, sloping with a gentle inclinatiOn, env~lop in succession a great multitude of minor volcanos~ wh1le new ones spring up from time to time; and this has .given to the older parts of the mountain, as seen in some sectiO~s two. or three thousand feet perpendicular, a complex and lnghly mteresting internal structure. f Etn~ ~ppears to .have been in activity from the earliest times o traditiOn ; for DIOdorus Siculus mentions an eruption whi'ch caused a d'I s t n·e t to be deserted by the Sicani before the Trojan |