THE ETNA ERUPTION.

Evening Star, Issue 20022, 13 November 1928, Page 6

THE ETNA ERUPTION.

"Thk worst since the seventeenth century" is a description applied to the eruption of Mount Etna which for over a week past has been causing alarm and devastation in Sicily. The appropriateness of the implied comparison might be questioned if it had reference to destructiveness already suffered. Only one small village seems to hare been destroyed so far, and not more than a very few jives appear to have been lost. Apparently it is the size and prospect of continuance of the lava flow by which the worst apprehensions have been caused, and a lava tide nearly seven miles broad, even when it advances slowly, must be an appalling spectacle. This one split early into three main streams., of which two have since reunited. During the eruption of 1669 streams of lava rolled over a great area of country for forty days, and tens of thousands of deaths were caused. Minor eruptions at intervals followed it for u year. An export estimate is that the mountain has twice as much fiery material to disgorge now as has yet swept the country, and that makes a bad prospect for the inhabitants. It is surprising, however, how familiarity with even the worst perils of Nature can breed calmness in their presence, if not contempt for them. With a long record of destructiveness caused by their mountain, the Sicilians would appear to feci much more pride in it, as a general rule, than terror of it. It is the highest mountain in Italy, and the largest volcano in the world. The main crater is three miles wide, and there are 200 subsidiary craters. There are three zones reaching up the mountain's side. Up to 3,000 ft the land is very fertile; wheat, vegetables, and all sorts of crops requiring water can bo grown. Above that, where water is scanty, vines and olives flourish. These two districts aio (tensely populated. The next zone has few inhabitants and is chiefly wooded. When anything is destroyed in a lava flow the peasants say it is buried a hundred years deep, for that is the time which must pass before the land can again become fertile. After two years the lava from such a flow will still be found hot. According to a recent writer: " A big boulder is pushed over and steam comes forth, and we get stones stained with sulphur and too hot to hold." Tho Catanian attitude towards Etna has been thus described: " The town is happy to rest at the foot of so fair an object. Does she not bring us, in her second zone, corn, wine, oil, silk, spice, fruit; in her third zone, wood, flocks, game, tar, cork, honey, while her snow cools our wine in summer." If a visitor ventures to hint at any disagrcables attending an eruption of the volcano tho inhabitants say: "No spectacle in the world is so grand as her blazing Java." Another saying is that "All our poetry comes from her." They are quick to resent any slighting terms, and are quite angry with Homer for not mentioning her smoke. An Knglish family who descended hastily when an eruption broke out were treated with contempt: ''They are not volcanic like the Sicilians, theso Inglesi."