Peloponnesian war, which commenced in the year 431 B.C. three eruptions had taken place from Mount Etna, since Sicily was peopled by the Greeks. It is probably to one of these that Pindar has alluded in his 1st Pythian Ode,* written according to Heyné in consequence of the victory obtained by Hiero in the year 470 B. C. It may be remarked that this poet particularly speaks of the streams of lava, which, if we may judge from Vesuvius, are less usual concomitants of the first eruptions of a volcano.† Τας εξευγονται μεν απλα Του πυρος αγνόταται Εκ μυχων παγαι ποταμοι Δάμεραισιν μεν προχέοντι βοον καπνε Αιθων. Diodorus Siculus mentions an eruption subsequent to the above, namely in the 96th Olymp. or 396 years B. C. * Eschylus as well as Pindar, alludes to the confinement of Typhon under the Island of Sicily, and to the volcanic eruptions arising from his presence. Και νυν, αχρείον και παρηορον δέμας Κείται στενωπου πλησιον θαλάσσιου Κορυφαις δέν ακραις ημενος μυδροκτυπει Ηφαιστος, ενθεν εκραγήσονται ποτε Ποταμοι πυξος, δαπτοντες αγρίαις γναθοις Της καλλικάρπου Σικελίας λευρας γυας Prometheus, line 363. It may be remarked that this poet speaks of the volcanic phænomena as to happen at some time subsequent to that at which the incidents of the play are supposed to take place, and as being, at the period to which he refers, only in preparation. + In case any doubts should exist respecting the interpretation of this passage, it may be remarked that the existence of a stream of lava is more distinctly expressed by Thucydides, whose words are: ερρύη περι αυτο το τας τούτο ο ρυαξ τα πυρος εκ της Αίτνας. L. 3. 116. * Lib. 14. which stopped the Carthaginian army in their march against Syracuse. The stream may be seen on the eastern slope of the mountain near Giarre, extending over a breadth of more than two miles, and having a length of twenty-four from the summit of the mountain to its final termination in the sea. The spot in question is called the Bosco di Aci; it contains many large trees, and has a partial coating of vegetable mould, and it is seen that this torrent covered lavas of an older date which existed on the spot. Four eruptions are recorded to have happened between this period and the century immediately preceeding the Christian æra, during which latter epoch the mountain seems to have been in a state of frequent agitation, so that it is noticed by the poets among the signs of the anger of the gods at the death of Cæsar.t After this for about a thousand years its eruptions are but little noticed, but during the last eight centuries they have succeeded each other with considerable rapidity. Referring however to the chronological list of the eruptions of the mountain for a specification of these, I shall here merely allude to such as have produced some remarkable change in the character of the country. I know not whether I ought to include among these events the supposed destruction of the port of Ulysses and the island adjoining, of which Homer and Virgil make mention, and which, from the position assigned to them by Pliny,‡ have been supposed to have stood near the village of Longnina a few miles north of Catania. As the present size of the creek which is found there, adapted only for small fishing boats, is far too inconsiderable to correspond with the description given of it by ⚫ Viz. B. C. 140-135-126--122. Cluv. Sic. ant. p. 105. + Quoties Cyclopum effervere in agros Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. 3. cap. 14. Georgic, Lib. I. l. the poets, and as the island itself does not exist, it has been imagined that there was once an harbour farther inland, and at the back of the present village, an idea to which the configuration of the surrounding country seems to lend some colour. Bembot even goes so far, as to attribute to an eruption that took place in the 14th century the filling up of the harbour and the junction of the island with the main land, and Fazzello follows him in this notion; but Ferrara assures us that the lava of Longnina certainly belongs to the eruption recorded by Orosius as happening in the year of Rome 631 or 122 B. C., so that the destruction of the port must have occurred at that epoch, if at all. It must be remarked however that, with the single exception of Pliny, no notice is taken of such a port by any of the prose writers of antiquity, so that it is possible that the whole may have been a figment of imagination, first introduced by Homer, and copied with little variation by his Roman imi tator. The only semblance of an harbour, which the neighbourhood of Catania has to shew, it owes to the lava of 1669. In this memorable eruption a rent twelve inches in length took place on the flank of the mountain above Nicolosi, about half way between Catania and the summit, and from this fissure descended a torrent of melted matter, which continued flowing for several miles, destroyed a part of Catania, and at length entering the sea formed a little promontory, which serves to arrest the fury of the waves in that quarter. At the same time the accumulation of matters ejected, raised on the mountain two conical hills called the Monti Rossi, which measure at their base about two Italian miles, and are in height more than three hundred feet above the slope of the mountain, on which they are placed.‡ Portus ab accessu ventorum immotus, et ingens + See P. Bembi Liber de Ætnâ, attached to Schelte's Edition of Corn. Sever. Etna. Amstel. 1703.-p. 218. Ferrara. Descrizione dell' Etna. Palermo. 1818. The products of the volcanic action at these different periods hardly present sufficient variety to deserve a separate enumeration, although I have observed among the lavas that appear of the oldest date a nearer approach to the characters of trachyte and porphyry slate, than is ever observable among the more modern,* all of which, so far as I have examined, attract the magnetic needle, and therefore probably contain an admixture of titaniferous iron. The ejected masses are much more uniform in the composition than those found on Vesuvius, and I am not aware of the occurrence among them of any mineral that does not exist in the latter mountain. Signor Gemellaro has discovered a mass of granite, which seems to have been ejected, in the midst of antient lava.t During the period at which I visited the mountain, sulphurous acid was given out in volumes from the crater, but the condensed vapours collected from the Famarcles on its exterior consisted simply of water, very slightly impreg nated with muriatic acid. Sulphuretted hydrogen I did not discover near the summit, but at the bottom of the mountain it is given out from the spring of Santa Vennera near Jaci Reale. Gioni, who examined Mount Etna with much attention, has stated, that it consists of a nucleus of porphyry (trachyte) covered more or less by the lavas subsequently ejected. It is probable from analogy that this may be the case, but I could not satisfy myself on the point from actual examination. + See his pamphlet " Sopra alcuni pezzi di Granito e di lava anticha trovați presso alla cima di Etna," del Dottor C. Gemmellaro. Catania. 1823. TABLE, Shewing the correspondence in point of time between the eruptions of Etna, Vesuvius, and the other Volcanos connected with them. (Extracted, with some few additions, from Hoff's Geschichte der veranderungen der Erdoberflache.) 126 or 125, in which year flames rose from the sea near Lipari. 122 |