ETNA IN A TEMPER

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 141, 17 June 1922, Page 10

ETNA IN A TEMPER

AN ADVENTUROUS CLIMB.

An interesting account of a climb up Mount Etna, the famous volcano of Sicily, is contributed to an English paper by Mr. C. Edwardes. After describing tho difficulties of the ascent to the desert area around the crater, the writer says: "It was almost in midnight darkness and some 9500 feet above sea-level that the crawl and scramble' up the crater slope began. My companions soon .required further persuasion to continue. They received it. But at the third time of soliciting I also was troubled by doubts. Tho thujider and lightning in the pitchiness were very disquieting; Etna's own bellowing was still more so. Snow was falling, and the footwork on the warm mud and scoria of so steep an acclivity was exhausting. Besides, something else was falling with the snow —red-hot stuff and incandescent stones, which landed in the mud with significant thuds! 'Signoro! signore!" cried the men, once more at a standstill, and tbere was earnest mention of widows and orphans. But it seemed such a pity to confess defeat so near to our goal that once again I wa6 obstinate. >We bandaged our heads with scarves and handkerchiefs, and, half suffocated1 by the sulphur fumes which came scourging down the slope, rushed the few hundred final feet of th^ mountain. ■■ We vf&r& boot-deep in hot mud at the finish and greeted by a hurricane wind from the thundering storm centre as well as the oratjbr bellowings and fusillades. A. single minute or less here on the slippejry lip of the furnace was enough. Thefumes were stifling. Etna's sonorous .pantings •in that infernal vaporous pit were the worst sound yet, ■ and it wero sheer lunacy to trust to" luck any longer. 'Bun! runf' shouted the men when an intense glow came suddenly from the ipit, and we wero doing' our best to run, and hoping the best for our heads, when the fiery rain from the volcano's latest abdominal effort descended on all sides.

"We were a singed and pa-nting trio wheiv we rejoined the horses, but otherwise undamaged. Instantly now the men's spirits soared. They laughed and rejoiced as they had previously complained, and drank wine. There was talk of a votive candle or two in the Nico-losi Church by and by."