Etna: A History of the Mountain and of Its Eruptions

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C. Kegan Paul & Company, 1878 - 146 páginas
 

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Página 110 - These agitations increase until the vast cauldron becomes surcharged with the fused minerals, when, if the convulsion is not sufficiently powerful to force them from the great crater (which, from its great altitude and the weight of the candent matter, requires an uncommon effort), they explode through that part of the side which offers the least resistance with a grand and terrific effect, throwing red-hot stones and flakes of fire to an incredible height, and spreading ignited cinders and ashes...
Página 72 - Now, says he, the eruption which formed the lowest of these lavas, if we may be allowed to reason from analogy, must have flowed from the mountain at least 14,000 years ago. Recupero tells me he is exceedingly embarrassed, by these discoveries, in writing the history of the mountain ; that Moses hangs like a dead weight upon him, and blunts all his zeal for inquiry, for he really has not the conscience to make his mountain so young as that Prophet makes the world.
Página 60 - ... when light passes obliquely from a denser to a rarer medium, it is refracted away from a perpendicular to the surface. The amount of refraction varies with the medium and the obliquity of the rays. No law has been discovered to enable us to judge of the refractive power of -bodies by their other qualities, but as a general rule, dense bodies have a greater refractive power than those...
Página 56 - This point or pinnacle, raised on the brink of a bottomless gulf, as old as the world, often discharging rivers of fire, and throwing out burning rocks, with a noise that shakes the whole island. Add to this, the unbounded extent of the prospect, comprehending the greatest diversity and the most beautiful scenery in nature ; with the rising sun, advancing in the east, to illuminate the wondrous scene.
Página 6 - And first the nature of the whole mountain is hollow underneath, underpropped throughout with caverns of basaltic rocks. Furthermore, in all caves are wind and air; for wind is produced^ when the air has been stirred and put in motion. When this air has been thoroughly heated and raging about...
Página 55 - ... often discharging rivers of fire, and throwing out burning rocks with a noise that shakes the whole island. Add to this the unbounded extent of the prospect, comprehending the greatest diversity and the most beautiful...
Página 110 - Demone, as being the abode of infernal spirits. These agitations increase until the vast caldron becomes surcharged with the fused minerals, when, if the convulsion is not sufficiently powerful to force them from the grand crater — which from its great altitude and the weight of the candent...
Página 7 - ... prodigious weight; leaving no doubt that this is the stormy force of air. Again the sea to a great extent breaks its waves and sucks back its surf at the roots of that mountain. Caverns reach from this sea as far as the deep gorges of the mountain below. Through these you must admit [that air mixed up with water passes ; and] the nature of the case compels [this air to enter in from that] open sea and pass right within and then go out in blasts and so lift up flame and throw out stones and raise...
Página 4 - Sicily, lie heavy on his shaggy breast: and he is fast bound by a pillar of the sky, even by snowy Etna, nursing the whole year's length her frozen snow: Whereout pure springs of unapproachable fire are vomited from the inmost depths: in the daytime the lava-streams pour forth a lurid rush of smoke: but in the darkness a red rolling flame sweepeth rocks with uproar to the wide deep sea. That dragon-thing 1 it is that maketh issue from beneath the terrible fiery flood...
Página 58 - ... a position higher than any part of it, we had a considerable insight. We enjoyed keenly our full clear sight of the volcanic action, and even at the moment I could not help being struck with the remarkable accuracy of Virgil's account. The great features of this action...

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