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
Ipse, sed horrificis juxtâ tonat Etna ruinis.

+ 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 moun tain. 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 impregnated with muriatic acid. Sulphuretted hydrogen I did not summit, but at the bottom of the mountain it is given out from the spring of Santa Vennera near Jaci Reale.

discover near the

* 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 trovati presso alla cima di Etna," del Dottor C. Gemmellaro. Catania. 1823.

TABLE,

Shewing the correspondence in point of time between the eruptions of Ætna, 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

1538, 29th September, Formation of the Monte Nuovo,

near Puzzuoli.

1689, March 14.

1631, December 16.

1660, July.

1682, August 12.

1694, March to December. (Eruption 1694, March 12, with feeble recur

1702, March 8.

only of ashes.)

1701, July 2 till 15.

1723, November, beginning of the month.

1735, October, beginning of the

rences of action till 1698.

It appears from this Table that the nearest coincidence between the eruptions of the two Volcanos was in 1694 and in 1811, when they occurred within a month of each other; and that on eight several occasions an interval of less than half a year elapsed between them, viz. that of Vesuvius Dec. 2, 1754, was followed by one of Etna on March 2, 1755; Vesuvius August 3, 1779, by Etna May 18, 1780; Vesuvius October 31, by Etna July 28, 1787; Etna June, 1788, by Vesuvius February, 1799; again followed by one of Etna in June, same year; Etna March 27, 1809, by Vesuvius 10 December, 1809; Vesuvius October 12, 1811, by Etna October 25, 1811; again followed by Vesuvius December 31, same year; Vesuvius May 27, 1819, by Etna, November 25, same year.