| OCR Text |
Show 364 ERUPTION OF ETNA A, D, 1669· Th yd1• des I• n1.L' 0rms us *, that between · the colopn ization war. uc k d th commencement of the e1 o pon-f S. 'l b the Gree s, an e . h d d o lCl y Y. . 4Sl B C., three eruptwns a occurre . nesian war m the year d .. the year 4~7 B C.' and ravaged The last of these hap~ene 1~ s probably that so poetically the environs of Catama ; nn wa l . d p· d in his first Pyt 1Ian o e. described by m ~r 1. 1 h ened in the year 1669 is the h t ruptwn w uc 1 app h T e gr~a e shall call the reader's attention: A~ ear~ - first to whtch we h d all the houses m Nicolosi, a quake had leve1led to~ elgroun marcrin of the woody region, town situated n.ear t e ohw er mit of Etna, and ten from t miles from t e sum about twen Y . ul hs then opened near that town, the sea at Catama. Two·~ Jere thrown up in such quantity, from whence sand and scori .L' onths a double cone was . f three or 1our m ' that, m the course o. . b t four hundred and fifty feet formed, called Monti Rossi, a ou Minor colltl 01& tltejlallkl of Elna. 1. Monti Rossi, near Nl.C O 1o s·l , £o r med in 1669. No.l4. 2. Vampeluso ? t d. henomenon occurred at high. But the most extraor ml ~rylP .n the neicrhbouring plain the commencemen t of th.e convub swnd and of uon known d ep th ' Of S Lio. A fissure SIX feet roa '. mew hat tortuous . d h nd ran m a so . opened with a lou eras ' a '.t f E"tna Its directiOn . 1 . '1 of the summi o . . It course, to wit nn a ml e d . length twelve miles. was from north to south, an Its "' Book III., towards the end. 'de Vampolara, . d d s called by my gUI • t The hill which I have her.e mtro uce t ~va this which I find in Gemmolla'ro s but the name given in the text lS the neares o Catalogue of Minor Cones. · ERUPTION OF ETNA A. D. 166!), 365 emitted a most vivid light. I<'ive other parallel fissures of considerable length afterwards opened one after the other, and emitted smoke, and gave out bellowing sounds which were heard at the distance of forty miles. This case seems to present the geologist with an illustration of the manner in which those continuous dikes of vertical porphyry were formed which are seen to traverse some of the older lavas of Etna; for the liO'ht emitted from the great rent of S. Lio appears to indica~e that it was filled to a certain height with incandescent lava, probably to the height of an orifice not far distant from Monti Rossi, which at that time opened and poured out a lavacurrent. This lava soon reached a minor cone called Mompiliere, at the base of which it entered a subterranean grotto communicating with a suite of caverns which are common in the lavas of Etna. Here it appears to have melted down some of the vaulted foundations of the hil1, so that the whole cone became sliO'htly depressed and traversed by numerous open fissures. The lava, after overflowing fourteen towns and villages, some havinO' a population of between three and four thousand inhabitant~, arrived at length at the walls of Catania. These had been purposely raised to protect the city; but the burning flood accumulated till it rose to the top of the rampart, which was sixty feet in height, and then it fell in a fiery cascade and overwhelmed part of the city. The wal1, however, was not thrown down, but was discovered long afterwards by excavations made in the rock by the Prince of Biscari; so that the traveller may now see the solid lava curling over the top of the rampart as if still in the very act of falling. This great current had performed a course of fifteen miles before it entered the sea, where it was still six hundred yards broad and forty feet deep. It covered some territories in the ·environs of Catania, which had never before been visited by the lavas of Etna. While moving on, its surface was in general a mass of solid rock; and its mode of advancing, as is usual with lava-streams, was by the occasional fissuring of the solid walls. A gentleman of Catania, named Pappalardo, desiring to secure the city from the approach of the threatening torrent, went out with a party of fifty men whom he had dressed in skins to protect them from the 'heat, and armed with iron crows and hooks. 'l'hey broke |
