RAIN OF HOT STONES

Hokitika Guardian, 10 November 1928, Page 5

RAIN OF HOT STONES

WORSE ERUPTION THAN 1910

t United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.)

ROME, Nov. 8

Regarding the Alt. Etna eruption Professor Ponte, Director of the Etna Observatory, has telegraphed Signor Mussolini saying that the eruption of 1910-11 lasted for a fortnight, but tbe present disturb,antes are far more violent and must extend much longer. Aeroplanes are cTrcling the .summit, and signalling any new phenomena. They have announced a rain o! stone and cinders has begun, accompanied by explosions, which are heard throughout the district like the roar of artillery.

It is now revealed that three men were incinerated in a faun house at Mescali. 'They had cleared out the women and children, and were preparing to leave themselves when boiling lava encircled the house, which collapsed like a pack of cards. Of a vast rowd who were assembled none could reach the men before they were swallowed up.

ANIMALS AND BIRDS STUPEFIED The animals are reacting to the catastrophe strangely. Cats jump boldly into the advancing inciulesocat mass, and are incinerated. Birds fly low, uttering mournful deaths songs before fluttering downward to their destruction.

Only the dogs are normal, they harking violently, as at the approach of an enemy. The evacuation of the villages is being carried on with wonderful discipline and calm, each family billowing a cart carrying their efleets.

One young widow tramped alongside tlir coffin of her recntly dead husband.

Woods and orange groves have been blotted out over a large area. The Minister of Works is supervising the evacuation. Detachments of fronps are aiding and are using explosives to form great holes ill the mountainside, in an attempt to cheek the progress of the lava.

In addition to the lava incandescent boulders are now being vomited from the crater. Some of them measure ten cubic feet constituting a grave menace

to the water pipes, none of which could withstand such an impact should it he struck.

Among tin* victims were an eld couple living in a lonely cottage amid orange groves. I hoy were lingering and hoping that their home would he spared, but suddenly the lava sped over th(> cottage, and the occupants disappeared under the stream of fire. A (number of Mescali’ homeless people n*lio exceed ten thousand, are in a pitiable condition, despite the efforts to alleviate their suffering.