VISIT TO THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT ETNA.
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.