Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1892 — FIRE BELCHES FORTH. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FIRE BELCHES FORTH.

ERUPTIONS OF TWO CELEBRATED VOLCANOES. Bow Old Vetinvlus Poured Out Destraction and Then Smoldered for Years-Terrible ■Work of Mt. Etna In 1160—Other Great Volcanic Mountains. Mt. Etna and Its Flames. Mount Etna is again in eruption, and for the eighty-fourth time is attracting the attention of the world. The earliest recorded,.eruption of ’Jitna is one mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, which —4 £4.-^—; l-a

caused the Sicanl to desert its vicinity and move further to the south. No date is given, but it is said to have taken place in the seventh century B. C. The most terrible eruption of the mountain -Which has ever been recorded was in February, 1169. An earthquake, felt for a long distance, destroyed Catrfnia

and burled 15,000' people. The cathedral of the city at the time was crowded with people celebrating the feast of St. Agatha. The cathedral was ruined and the worshipers buried, together with bishops and forty-four Benedictine -monks. One side of the crater fell in. In 1537 a part of the village of

Nicolos! was destroyed. At this tins© a etream of lava ran for fifteen miles down the mountain. A terrible eruption occurred in 1669. During this eruption Nicoiosi, Belpasso, andapartof Catania were destroyed. Belpasso, a village of fl,ooo people, was destroyed by the outburst from a new crater which opened About a mile below the others and threw out a flood of lava two miles wide. Stopped for a time by the eity walls of Catania, the lava rose gradually to a height of sixty feet and finally rushed over the walls and destroyed a part of the city. Altogether some fifteen towns were destroyed by this eruption and lava thrown out covering an area of at least forty square miles. The latest eruption prior to the present one was in • 1886. This lasted about three weeks • and was preceded by earthquakes. Cinders fell as far distant as Messina, about eighty miles from Mount Etna. Mount Etna is one of the most noted »nd marvelous volcanoes in the world. It is located on the eastern coast of

Sleily, is 10,868 feet or more than two miles high, and its base has a circumference of about ninety miles. Some of the lava from its eruptions forms headlands several hundred feet high along the lonian Sea. The area of the moun-

tain is about four hundred and eighty square miles, and includes two cities— Catania and Aci Reale —and sixty-three towns and villages. It is estimated that as many as 300,000 people live on the sides of the mountain. The moun-i tain may be ascended, preferably between June and December. A party which ascended in August found it so cold near the top that extra coats were necessary. The abyss of the crater was found in 1877 to be about a thousand feet deep and some two or three miles around. Mount Vesuvius. The volcano of Vesuvius is more celebrated than Mount Etna, although it is only 4,000 feet in height, against the nearly eleven thousand feet of Etna. Probably Vesuvius has been nearly or| quite twice its present height The first eruption of Vesuvius of which there is any record occurred Aug. 24 in the year 79, during the reign of Titus, It is memorable not only as the eruption which destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum and caused the death of

Pliny, the naturalist, but also as having had his nephew, the younger Pliny, for its historan. He gives a most graphic description of this magnificent though terrible scene. “The cloud which had scattered so deep a murkiness over the day had now settled into a solid and impenetrably mass. It reeetabled less even the thickest gloom of night in the open air than the close and blind darkness of some narrow room. But in proportion as the blackness gathered did the lightnings around Vesuvius increase in thi ir vivid and scorching glare. Nor was their horrible beauty confined to the usual lines of fire; no rainbow ever rivaled their varied and prodigal dyes. “In the pauses of the showers you heard the rumbling of the earth beneath and the groaning waves of the tortured sea, or, lower still, and audible but to the watch of the intensest fear, the grinding and hissing murmur of the escaping gases through the chasms of the distant mountain. Sometimes the cloud appeared to break from its solid mass and by the lightning to assume quaint and vast mimicries of human or of monster shapes striding across the gloom, crowding one upon the other and vanishing swiftly into the turbulent abyss of shade. “Suddenly the place became lighted with an intense and lurid glow. Bright anil gigantic through the darkness which closed around it like the wails of hell the mountain shone —a pile of fire. Its summit seemed riven in two, or rather, above its surface there seemed to ri&o two monster shapes, each confronting

each ae demons contending for a world. These were of one blood-red hue of fire, which lighted up the whole atmosphere far and wide, but below the base of the mountain was still dark and shrouded, save in three places, down which flowed serpentine and irregular rivers of the molten lava. Darkly red through the profound gloom of their banks they flowed slowly on toward the city. Through'the still air was heard the rattling of the fragments of rock crashing one upon another as they were borne down the fiery cataracts, darkening for one instant the spot where they fell and suffused the next in the burnished hues of the flood along which they floated. ” The effect of this eruption was to destroy the entire side of the mountain nearest to the sea, leaving the only remnants of the ancient cratce, the lower ridge on the south flank Er* called La Pedamentina, and that portion of the wall which under the name of Somma encircles about two-fifths of the new cone. This cone is the present Vesu-

i vlus, which has continued to be the ali most exclusive channel of eruption to I the present day. I In 1631 one of the greatest of modem j eruptions took place. The cone poured out a column of vapor so loaded with

ashes as to have the appearance of black smoke, and which assumed the usual form of a pine tree. The column of vapor was, carried over nearly b 0 miles of .country. At the same moment the summit of the cone poured out seven streams of lava, one of which destroyed two-thirds of Terra del Greco; a second Resina, which had been built on the site of Herculaneum; another the village of Granatello and a part of Portici. No less than 18,000 persons are said to have perished in this catastrophe. Other eruptions occurred in 1638 and 1660, when the crater was so cleared out that three distinct holes could be seen in action at the bottom of the hollow. From 1704 to 1708 there were frequent eruptions, the worst being in 17uZ, when .ashes, stones and lava were cast forth in great quantities, Naples being Aug. 4 covered with a dense shower of ashes. From 1712 to 1737 there were constant eruptions, being at times thrown to a height of 1,00” feet above the orifice from which they issued. The years 1751, 1754, 1758 and 1760 were also very turbulent. The mountain was comparatively quiet until 1834, when two streams of lava were thrown out, one over the margin of the crater, the other from the base of the old cone accompanied by a sea of flame. One stream lost itself in the Atrio del Cavallo, the other flowed down in avast currentof great rapidity, nearly half a mile broad and from eighteen to thirty feet deep.. It did not stop for eight days, and in its course it destroyed the village of Caposecco, leaving only four houses out of 500. In 1838-39 there were also eruptions of great violence. The crater was changed by the last outbursts, assuming the form of a funnel 300 feet deep, accessible to the bottom. Alter a few years of quietness the mountain again resumed business at the old stand. The night of Feb. 9, 1854, there was a terrific explosion and pouring out of lava, one stream reaching and utterly destroying Bosco Reale, the wood formed of stately oaks and ash trees. The large trees, as soon as enveloped in the seething lava stream, poured out jets of hissing steam from every knot and branch and then exploded with a loud report, shooting upwards of fifty feet or more. It formed a wonderful speotacle to see those large trees, burning briliantly, shooting through the air in every direction. This eruption changed the appearance of the mountain entirely. The walls of the old crater were broken down and the central cone reduced in height and form. After this Vesuvius beiame c mparatively peaceful, though it sputtered and shook the earth occasionally. During the first three months of 1868

there were numerous outbursts from the top of the great ebne which caused it to reach a greater elevation than at any former period, the height April 3 being 4,253 feet above the level of the sea. At the beginning of 1871 the mountain again exhibited signs of activity, which continued throughout the year and culminated in the eruption of 1872. April 24 five streams of lava Issued from the great cone. During the night of the 25th a fresh stream of lava issued about half way dowu the side of the crater. A number of people had collected to view this, when a torrent of lava suddenly burst out close to the crater of 1855, and enveloped and killed a number of the sightseers. The 28th and 29th there was a tremendous outburst of ashes, which fell over the surrounding country as far as Naples, obscuring the daylight and entirely destroying the vegetation. Other Volcanoes. Iceland, as is well known, has a geological formation, and its hot volcanic eruptions form a strong contrast to its climate. Most of the mountains of the island have been volcanoes. Hecla, the most famous, is between 4,0 f 0 and 5,000 feet in height. It has eighteen recorded eruptions, the latest being 1845-6. The earliest known eruption was in 1104, which gave the name “sand-rain winter" to the season in which it occurred. Vast quantities of dust are discharged from the Icelandic volcanoes, a column of ashes said to be 16,000 feet high having arisen from Hecla in 1766. Popocatapetl, or, in the language of

the Aztecs, “smoking mountain,” is the most noted volcano in the Western hemisphere, and one of the highest mountains in either America, its snowcovered cone towering up 17,853 feet above the sea. At its summit there lies an immense crater about a mile across and more than a third of a mile in precipitous depth. Sulphur from the crater is or has been quarried at an elevation of 12,000 feet. During the last 300 years there have been but two or three eruptions, and those have been mild. Smoke constantly issues from the mountain, and at times cinders and stones are sent up in showers. Mount St. Elias, in Alaska, is classed as an active volcano, and exceeds Popocatepetl in height, the latest estimates placing its height at 18,100 feet. Interesting volcanic remains are tc be found in the western part of the United States and especially in Utah. The most interesting volcanic district in Utah is near Fillmore, where volcanic buttes and tables rest upon the plain at distances of ten to thirty miles apart. The Tabernacle crater and Pavant butte may be mentioned In connection with volcanic remains in Utah. The demonstrations accompanying a volcanic eruption depend upon the character of the material within the crater and the passage leading downward. If the crater has a thin floor and the passage below is partially open or filled with molten lava, the volcanic gases can escape upward and outward with comparative quiet. But if the passage is badly obstructed violent explosions may take place, preceded by rumblings, and even by earthquakes, far-reaching in effect.

OBSERVATORY AND SUMMIT OF VESUVIUS.

VESUVIUS, APRIL 26, 1872, AT 3 P. M.

VIEW OF MOUNT ETNA.

DURING THE ERUPTION OF 1880.

ETNA FROM CATANIA HARBOR.

THE CRATER OT VESUVIUS