_BY LIEUTENANT G.H.P. WHITE, ROYAL NAVY._
On the evening of the 13th of July, 1830, I set off from Catania with
a party of my messmates, to ascend Mount Etna, taking the necessary
guides, and two sumpter mules to carry the provisions, &c., as nothing
in that way can be procured after leaving Nicolosi, which is a small
village about twelve miles from Catania. Etna is divided by the
Sicilians into three several regions. The first is called Piè de
Montagna, the second Nemerosa, and the third Discoperta. The ascent,
though very gradual, commences immediately on leaving the city of
Catania, over a tolerably constructed road; the country around is
formed on an ancient volcanic soil; probably the third eruption
mentioned by Thucydides, which happened in the sixth year of the
Peloponnesian war, and the second of the eighty-eighth Olympiad.
Traversing the lands of Battianti, and St. Giovanni della Punta, the
road is constantly over the lava, and the country on either side is
delicious. Trecastagne, nine miles from Catania, is seated on the
acclivity of a high volcanic mountain. The scene here is beautiful
and picturesque. Near the principal church the view is most extensive.
Towards the east the mountains of Calabria, the sea stretching
from Taormina to Catania, bathing the sides of Etna, covered with
vineyards, woods and villages: northward rises the mountain itself,
surrounded by its progeny of pigmy mountains; these have been thrown
up in various forms, composed principally of cinders, and covered with
rich vegetation. The freshness of the air, the beauty and picturesque
situations of the houses surrounded by lofty and fine trees, the
over-teeming fertility of the soil, and the laughing fields, where
golden Ceres still lingers, unwilling to quit her favourite abode,
intersected by courses of lava, as yet unproductive, make this view
one of the most beautiful and interesting that can be imagined. These
mighty streams of once liquid fire, extending in many places ten miles
in length, by two or three in breadth, fill the mind with horror and
astonishment: that such wondrous masses, consisting of earths, stones,
and minerals, fused and mixed, could be driven forth in one wild
current from the mountain, makes us pause, and confounds any attempt
to reason on the phenomena.--And, although the lava for many centuries
lays waste the superincumbent land, yet, after a certain, but very
long period, it is brought by human industry into such a state as to
become the richest soil for cultivation: but when we reflect on
the necessity of some ages to effect this wished-for state of
decomposition, we bewilder the mind without arriving at any certain
conclusion. When this process is duly effected, the cactus opuntia, or
prickly pear, is planted, which hastens the desired event, and has the
power to break up the lava, and render it fit for productive purposes.
Five miles from Trecastagne is Nicolosi, a small village which has
often suffered from the fire-vomiting mountain. Here we supped,
and baited the mules for two hours. Nicolosi, according to Signor
Gemmellero, a Sicilian physician, long resident at Catania, is two
thousand one hundred and twenty-eight feet above the level of the sea,
and its mean temperature 64° Fahr.
From hence, to an almost interminable extent, there is a most superb
view of the surrounding country; nothing can be more varied, grand,
and sublime; every spot spared by the all-devastating lavas, is highly
cultivated; the vines and other productive fruit-trees are seen laden
with the most delicious fruits; the groves of olives, the towns and
villages, in almost endless aerial perspective, all terminated by the
distant and deep-blue sea, form a scene the most enchanting that can
be conceived. We remounted about ten o'clock, P.M., our trusty mules,
and pursued or journey. The evening was deliciously serene, the stars
shone with extraordinary brilliancy, and the sky appeared intensely
blue, while the galaxy, or milky way, beamed like a splendid stream of
light across the azure expanse.
The cool breezes now wafted from the upper regions of the mountain
were very refreshing, and exhilarated our spirits in an extraordinary
degree. Passed Monte Rosso, which is about 600 feet above the level of
the surrounding plain, and is said to have been thrown up during the
great eruption of the year 1669, and from which issued that horrible
stream of burning lava, which, after destroying the country for the
length of fourteen miles, ran into the sea at Catania.
About six miles higher up commences the Nemerosa region, which, like
a beautiful green girdle, encircles the mountain; it abounds with
ancient hillocks, and lava of different periods, and is almost
covered with frowning woods of oak, holm, beech and pines, on the more
elevated points.
After enjoying for some time this stupendous and enchanting treat, we
kept torturing and progressing, lost in pleasing reveries caused by
the fairy scene.
Halted at the upper boundary of the forest region, to refresh our
mules, and exchange our light clothing for garments of a warmer
texture, as the wind now blew cool and somewhat chilly; for the
temperature of this spot was about 50°, while that of Catania, which
we had only left a few hours ago, was about 84° Fahr.
The road, on leaving our resting-place, became tedious and cheerless;
hardly any vegetation was discoverable, and still wilder regions
appeared above us. The path now lay over masses of rough lava; so much
so, that at times it became necessary to dismount and actually drag
our jaded animals over the rugged precipices which obstructed our
progress: the intricacy of the path required us to follow one another
very closely, that we might not lose the track, which became so
tortuous in its course, as would puzzle any one but a muleteer
accustomed to the road to find the clue of this volcanic labyrinth in
the darkness of night.
After much anxious travelling over wastes of cinders and black sand,
we seemed to be approaching near the wished-for summit; when, about
two o'clock, A.M., the moon, now shorn of her beams, queen like, arose
behind the bifurcated summit of Etna; her cheering light was very
grateful to us in this wild spot. The awful cone of the mountain
pillowed against the heavens, and emitting clouds of silvery white
smoke from its burning crater, had a grand effect at this solemn hour
of the night.
At three o'clock, arrived at the Casa Inglese, a rude hut built by the
English troops when stationed in Sicily, during the late war. Here it
became again necessary to halt a little to put on some extra clothing.
As soon as this was accomplished, the signal for the ascent was made
by the guides giving each person of the party a long staff, to assist
him in clambering the steeps, as the mules could not proceed any
further, owing to the nature and fatigue of the ascent. The first
portion of the road lay over large broken masses of lava, most
wearisome to scramble over. On approaching nearer the apex, the path
was over cinders, fine black sand, and scoria. In wading through this
compound the ascent became so difficult and fatiguing, that we were
all under the necessity of reposing every twenty or thirty yards,
tormented by the sulphureous vapour, which rendered respiration
painful, and was even less supportable than the abruptness of the
mountain path!
At length, after somewhat more than an hour's walk, the most harassing
that can be imagined, we arrived at the top just as the day began to
dawn. To paint the feelings at this dizzy height, requires the pen of
poetic inspiration; or to describe the scene presented to mortal
gaze, when thus looking down with fearful eye on the almost boundless
prospect beneath! The blue expanded ocean, fields, woods, cities,
rivers, mountains, and all the wonted charms of the terrestrial world,
had a magic effect, when viewed by the help of the nascent light;
while hard by yawned that dreadful crater of centuries untold,
evolving thick sulphureous clouds of white smoke, which rolling down
the mountain's side in terrific grandeur, at length formed one vast
column for many miles in extent across the sky. Anon the mountain
growled awfully in its inmost recesses, and the earth was slightly
convulsed! We now attempted to descend a short distance within
the crater; the guides, timid of its horrors, did not relish the
undertaking, but were induced at length, and conducted the party
behind some heaps of lava, from whence was a grand view of this
awful cavern. The noise within the gulf resembled loud continuous
thunderings, and after each successive explosion, there issued columns
of white, and sometimes of black smoke.
The crater presents the appearance of an inverted cone, the interior
part of which is covered with crystallizations of salts and sulphur,
of various brilliant hues--red appeared to predominate, or rather
a deep orange colour. Writers vary much in their accounts as to
the circumference of the crater. Captain Smyth, R.N., who had an
opportunity to ascertain it correctly, describes it as an oval,
stretching from E. and by N. to W., and by S. with a conjugate
diameter of four hundred and ninety-three yards; the transverse he
was prevented from ascertaining by a dense cloud that arose before his
operations were completed. It was soon requisite for us to retire from
this spot, as the smoke began to increase, and our guides said that
some adventurous travellers had lost their lives by approaching too
near, and were either blown into the abyss below by the violence
of the wind, which is generally very strong at this elevation, or
suffocated by a sudden burst of the sulphureous vapour.
The Regione Deserta, or desolate region of Etna, first attracts the
eye, marked in winter by a circle of ice and snow, but now (July)
by cinders and black sand. In the midst the great crater rears its
burning head, and the regions of intense heat and extreme cold shake
hands together. The eye soon becomes satiated with its wildness, and
turns with delight on the Sylvana region, which, with its magnificent
zone of forest trees, embraces the mountain completely round: in many
parts of this delightful tract are seen hills, now covered with
the most luxuriant vegetation, that have been formed by different
eruptions of Etna. This girdle is succeeded by another still richer,
called the Regione Culta, abundant in every fruit or grain that man
can desire: the small rivers Semetus and Alcantara intersect these
fertile fields; beyond this the whole of Sicily, with its cities,
towns, and villages, its corn-fields and vineyards in almost endless
perspective, charm and delight the senses.
The summit of the mountain is composed of scoria, and crystallizations
of sulphur, with here and there heaps of lava; wherever a stick is
thrust in, the opening immediately emits a volume of white smoke,
and if the hand be applied to the aperture, it is soon withdrawn on
account of the great heat. The mean temperature of the summit, during
the months of July and August, is 37° Fahr. After having remained
about an hour, descended to the Casa Inglese. After an hour's repose,
proceeded downwards, visited the Philosopher's Tower, as it is called,
which tradition says was constructed by Empedocles while he was
studying the various phenomena of Etna.
About a mile or two from this spot, there is a grand view of the
Val di Bove. The foreground consists of lava, forming the face of an
enormous precipice, at the bottom of which is seen a lovely valley,
gradually sloping down towards the coast, embracing the three several
regions of the mountain, to which the purple wave of the Mediterranean
forms a noble boundary: nothing can be more varied, rich, and
beautiful than this scene, as it comprises every object necessary to
form a perfect landscape.
It was interesting to notice the gradual increase of vegetation during
the descent. The Senecio Christhenifolius grows at the elevation of
8,830 feet, the Juniperus Communis commences at 6,800. Then follow the
Pinus Sylv., Betula Alba, Quercus Robur, and the Fagus Sylvaticus. The
olive is seen at the altitude of 3,000 feet, and the vines flourish as
high as 5,000 feet.--_United Service Journal._
[In a clever paper on the geographical position and history of
Active Volcanoes, contributed by W.M. Higgins, Esq. F.G.S. and
J.W. Draper, Esq. to the _Magazine of Natural History_, is the
following outline of Etna.]
Etna is entirely composed of volcanic rocks, and rises in imposing
grandeur to the height of 10,000 ft. above the level of the sea. It is
about 180 miles in circumferences, and is surrounded on every hand
by apparently small volcanic cones, though of no inconsiderable size,
which tend in a great degree to increase the apparent dimensions of
the central mountain. Some of these cones are covered with vegetation,
but others are arid and bare. From this variety in the progress of
vegetation, some persons have endeavoured to calculate the relative
ages of the cones; but these opinions are exceedingly vague, as it
requires a longer period to form a soil on some lavas than on
others. The earliest historical notice we have of this mountain is by
Thucydides, who states that there were three eruptions previous to the
Peloponnesian war (431 B.C.), to one of which Pindar alludes in his
first Pythian Ode. In the year 396 B.C. the volcano was again active;
and according to Diodorus Siculus, the Carthaginian army was stopped
in its march against Syracuse by the flowing lava. But let it suffice
to say, that ten eruptions previous to, and forty-eight subsequent to,
the Christian era, have been recorded; some when the mountain was
in the phase of moderate activity, and others when in the phase of
prolonged intermittence.
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