Eruption of Etna.

Manawatu Herald, 25 July 1899, Page 2

Eruption of Etna.

The cable news of the latest eruption of Mount Etna revives the interest that has previously been displayed in this enticing but dangerous spot. Etna is an isolated volcanic mountain close to the east coast of Sicily, with a base go miles in circumference, and a height of 10,850 feet. It slopes gontly up to a single cone containing the crater, a chasm 1000 feet in depth, and from two to three miles in circumterence. The slopes are divided into three sharply defined zones, the cultivated, the wooded, and the desert region. This last, extending from about 6300 feet upwards, is a dreary waste of black lava, scorie, ashes and sand, covered during the greater part of the year with snow. The wooded region, which stretches down to the line of 2000 feet, is planted with forests of chestnuts, beeches, birches, pines, maples, and oaks. Below this lies the cultivated zone, a thickly peopled region of great fertility. Etna is the site of the fabled forges of the Cyclops and is connected with ancient history in many ways. Diodorus Sieulus mentions eruptions a^happening in the year 1693 8.C., and many eruptions have been noted in succeeding years. An exceedingly disastrous eruption is recorded in the year 1169 A.D., when the town of Catania was overwhelmed and 15,000 perished in the ruins. Again in 1669 Catania was almost overthrown, and in 1693 it was nearly swallowed up with an earthquake, as, it is reported, in a moment more than 18,000 inhabitants were buried in the ruins. In 1852-53 there was a nine months' eruption, when a torrent of lava six miles long by two miles broad and some twelve feet in depth, was ejected. The town of Cataina is also memorable as being held by Garibaldi and his volunteers in opposition to the Italian government.