THE

AMERICAN

JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, &c.

ART. I.—Ascent of Mount Etna, February, 1832; by SIDNEY L. JOHNSON, late tutor in Yale College, and teacher in the U. States squadron, in the Mediterranean.

A wish to ascend Mt. Etna, was at first, the chief motive of our visit to Catania, but before departure, our hopes of reaching the summit were somewhat diminished. Since the snow fell, several parties had attempted it, but all without success. We often gazed upon it from our ships in the harbor of Syracuse, where it presented the singular appearance of a perfect cone of snow of astounding size, to whose dazzling whiteness the vertex tipped with black and tufted with a graceful plume of smoke, afforded the only relief. From the more commanding heights of Epipolæ, we could trace the sides lower down; the skirts of the snow were dappled with the naked patches of dark rock, then disappeared and the broad green base presented a cheerful contrast to the cold and glittering summit.

On our approach and entrance to Catania, the mountain was entirely veiled from view by clouds and the rain descended in torrents. Had this weather continued a little longer than it did, we might have departed without ocular proof of the existence of elevated ground in that vicinity. But after two or three days, a delightful change inspired us with strong hopes of accomplishing our desires, and we determined upon an immediate attempt.

Our arrangements were made for riding up as far as Nicolosi, on the 22d. of February. Abbate, our landlord had provided every necessary refreshment; and with a due supply of extra clothing, we mounted and were in motion by 4 P. M. Our party consisted of four, and was guided to the resting place for the night by our humorous and obliging host. A few steps brought us from the hotel in the Corso, to the Strada Etnea: these are the two finest streets of Catania, the former stretching from the sea, to the west quite through VOL. XXVI.-No. 1.

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the city; the latter cutting it at right angles and running towards the mountain from which it is named. As we turned the corner into this street, it seemed to extend nearly the whole of the route which we were to take, that is, to a distance of thirty miles and with a continuous ascent, to the elevation of 10,000 feet. Its line of direction cuts the mountain high up, but unfortunately a little to the south of its apex. A slight deviation westerly would have presented the whole rise of Etna, from its commencement midway through Etna Street, up to the smoky crest of the crater, and terminated a long vista of palaces with the sublimest object in the world.

Sallying from the city by a cottage delightfully situated at the extremity of the street, we followed, for the first six miles, the new and excellent carriage road, leading to Messina. We passed through a toll-gate, and it struck me as the first I had seen out of my own country. Two or three villages skirted the first part of the way with houses, and these with the fields and vineyards evinced a more thriving and happy population than we had noticed elsewhere in Sicily. Shortly after leaving the city, Abbate told us, we were passing over the port of Ulysses. It had been completely filled up by lava at an unknown period; that of Catania, on the other hand, owes its formation to the eruption of 1669. We dismounted and went a short distance from the road, to see an extinct crater. It must be a very ancient one; it presented the appearance of an irregular bowl, not more than two rods in diameter at the brim and with a small jagged orifice at the bottom : stones were dropped into this, and the sounds indicated frequent collision with the sides of the cavity, and but a trifling perpendicular descent.

About 6 o'clock, we reached Nicolosi, after an up-hill ride of twelve miles. The elevation, by the observations of Schow and Gemmellaro, is 2128 Paris feet, or about 2360 English feet. The evening air was rather keener than usual, but the fig, the orange, and the pomegranate, were evidences of a general security from frost. On the left of the village, towered to the height of 1000 feet, the scorched and menacing Monti Rossi, or Red Mounts. The course of the lava of 1669, can be distinctly seen, through the whole distance of twelve miles, from these two mountains, which it reared as landmarks of its source, to the mole of Catania, where it drove back the sea and forever bids it defiance. Its dark track, contrasting with the smiling beauty and luxuriance every where close upon its sides, brings fearfully to the imagination the horror and helpless dismay of

the inhabitants, when beholding so tremendous a deluge of fire advancing upon their fair possessions, burying every trace of cultivated fields, of houses, churches and spires, climbing the walls of their city and finally marching over its ruins to invade the sea itself. The sea yields to this novel attack of her enemy under her own fluid form, and volumes of flames and clouds of vapor arise from this new war of elements. Who can figure to himself the sounds and sights and other terrific accompaniments of such an event; the constant detonations of the lava, drowned from time to time, by the louder thunder of the mountain, the lurid canopy of clouds glowing with the fires below, and the most vivid lightnings of heaven, paled by the intenser glare of earth? Surely, the ignorant peasantry of Etna, may be forgiven the superstition which ascribes calamities so dreadful, to the immediate agency of the most powerful and terrible beings.

We almost stumbled upon Nicolosi before we saw it. The houses of the village are low, as if crouching to avoid some impending danger, and it was easy to confound their tiled roofs, with the ground which had been burnt to a similar color in the hotter furnace of the volcano. They are built thus low from fear of earthquakes. Abbate soon guided us into the courtyard of one of these humble tenements. Passing through the kitchen we found one large room furnished with just enough beds for our party, and such beds too as we could leave without regret, at any hour however early. Mr. Mario Gemmellaro occupied the house adjoining, and we repaired to him for the purpose of getting the keys of the English house and of purchasing some of his charts and views of Etna.

He was a bluff, hearty man, whose broad face and florid complexion were the more striking, from their contrast with the pallid features of most of his countrymen. For many years he has been a fearless observer of the terrific phenomena of Etna, and has made them the subject of several published pamphlets. We sat awhile, and conversation turning upon the numerous eruptions from the sides of the mountain, he said he had incontestable evidence, that they do not proceed directly from the center of the earth or of the volcanic force by separate tubes, but that the lava arises in the grand central and original funnel, and that by the pressure of the immense column of fluid, a passage is forced in between the conical caps, of which the mountain by repeated eruptions has been gradually formed. By this passage the lava flows down underneath the crust, until it makes or finds openings through it, and by these, discharges itself into the air.