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entire massy body of Mount Etna; but the whole of the island of Sicily, with all its noble cities, lofty hills, extensive plains, and meandering rivers. In the indistinct distance we perceive Malta; but have a clear view of the environs of Messina, and the greater part of Calabria; while Lipari, the fuming Vulcano, the blazing Stromboli, and the other Eolian isles, appear immediately under our feet, and seem as if, on stooping down, we might touch them with the finger.

Another object no less superb and majestic, was the far-stretching surface of the subjacent sea which surrounded me, and led my eye to an immense distance, till it seemed gradually to mingle with the heavens.

Seated in the midst of this theatre of the wonders of nature, I felt an indescribable pleasure from the multiplicity and beauty of the objects I surveyed, and a kind of internal satisfaction and exultation of heart. The sun was advancing to the meridian, unobscured by the smallest cloud, and Reaumur's thermometer stood in the tenth degree from the freezing point. I was therefore in that temperature which is most friendly to man; and the refined air I breathed, as if it had been entirely vital, communicated a vigour and agility to my limbs, and an activity and life to my ideas, which appeared to be of a celestial nature.

[Spalanzani's Travels.]

CHAP. XI.

VOLCANOES OF THE LIPARI ISLANDS.

To the northward of Sicily lies a cluster of small islands, almost all of which contain volcanoes, that of Stromboli being the chief. The crater of this last is peculiarly characterised by its frequent momentary eruptions of stones, which, in consequence of its being confined on the side of a hill, are thrown back by a recoil, and relapsing into the volcano supply it afresh with endless materials. The island of this group, which is named Vulcano, has a larger crater, but its

materials seem exhausted, The isle of Lipari, containing the town of the same name, presents vast rocks of volcanic glass; and it is from the bill called Campo Bianco, three miles from the town of Lipari, that Europe is chiefly supplied with pumice-stones for different purposes. Felicuda and Alicuda, the two extreme Liparian islands towards the west, display equal proofs of their having formerly contained volcanoes; and modern authors have discovered similar traces in the isle of Ischia, and in those of Penza to the north of the gulph of Naples; while that of Capri, to the south of the Neapolitan gulph, is supposed to be chiefly calcareous.

The best account we have received of the volcanic phenomenon of Stromboli is that of Spalanzani, from whom we shall take leave to present our readers with the few following detached extracts.

I SHALL now proceed to relate what I observed relative to the volcano on the night of the 1st of October. My residence was in a cottage, on the north side of the island, about half a mile from the sea, and two miles from the volcano; but so situated that the cloud of smoke round the mountain scarcely permitted me to see the top of the fiery ejections. I employed more hours of the night in making my observations, than I permitted myself for repose; and the following is a brief summary of the principal appearances I noticed.

The south-east wind blew strong. The sky, which was clear, the moon not shining, exhibited the appearance of a beautiful aurora borealis over that part of the mountain where the volcano is situated, and which, from time to time, became more red and brilliant, when the ignited stones were thrown to a greater height from the top of the mountain. The fiery showers were then more copious, and the explosions which followed them louder, the strongest resembling those of a large mine which does not succeed properly, from some cleft or vent. Every explosion, however, slightly shook the house in which I was, and the degree of the shock was proportionate to the loudness of the sound. I do not believe that these shocks were of the nature of the earthquake; they were certainly to be ascribed to the sudden action of the fiery ejections on the air, which struck the small house in which I was, in the same manner as the discharge of a cannon will shake the windows of the neighbouring houses, and sometimes the houses themselves. A proof of this is, that the

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fiery showers always were seen a few seconds before the shock was felt, whereas the house was so near the volcano, that, had it been a real earthquake, no interval of time would have been perceptible.

Before the morning rose, the fiery light over the volcano increased so much, at three different times, that it illuminated the whole island, and a part of the sea. This light was each time but of short duration, and the showers of ignited stones were, while it lasted, more copious than before.

On the morning of the 2d of the same month, the south-east wind blew stronger than ever, and the sea was greatly agitated. The smoke of Stromboli formed a kind of cap round the top of the mountain, which descended much lower than on the preceding day. The phænomena were the same; but the convulsions of the volcano were more violent. The explosions were very frequent, but always with a hollow sound; and the ejected ashes reached the scattered dwellings of the people of the island. In the morning, the ground appeared very plentifully sprinkled with these ashes, as they are called by the natives; but on examination, I found that they were not properly ashes, but very finely triturated scoriæ, consisting of very small grains, of no determinate form, dry, and rough to the touch, and which crumble into powder under the finger. They are not far from a vitreous nature, in colour between a grey and a red, semi-transparent, and so light, that some will float on the water. Their levity proceeds from the great quantity of vesicles, or pores, which they contain, and which causes them, when viewed with the lens, to bear some resemblance to the sea production of unknown origin called savago (favaggine).

The islanders assured me that these eruptions were very inconsiderable compared with others which had formerly taken place, during which the ashes had, in a few hours, formed a covering over the ground and the houses of several inches thick; and the stones thrown out were scattered over the whole island, to the great dainage of the vineyards and woods which were near the volcano, to which the flames communicated*.

* These showers of sand and pulverized scoriæ seem to be inseparable from volcanic eruptions, and to be copious in proportion as the latter are violent. Of this we have an example in the eruption of Etna in 1787, when the sand was carried as far as Malta. A prodigious space is well known to have been co

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