lowed towards Aci, and the third towards Catania. The ashes were
carried as far as Malta, a distance of 130 miles.

22. Four years afterwards an eruption is recorded by Silvaggio.

23. A manuscript preserved in the archives of the Cathedral of Catania
mentions an eruption which occurred on the 6th of August, 1371, which
caused the destruction of numerous olive groves near the city.

24. An eruption which lasted for twelve days commenced on the 9th of
November, 1408; it originated in the great crater, but several mouths
subsequently opened near the base of the mountain. Large quantities of
red-hot ashes were emitted, some of which fell in Calabria. The villages
of Pedara and Tre Castagne suffered severely from this eruption.

25. A violent earthquake in 1444 caused the upper cone of the mountain
to fall into the crater. A torrent of lava also issued from the
mountain, and moved for a space of twenty days towards Catania, but it
did not reach the city.

26. Two years later lava issued from the Val del Bove near the Rock of
Musarra; the crater then formed was perhaps the present Monte Finocchio.

27. A short eruption, of which we have no details, occurred in 1447:
after which Etna was quiescent for 89 years.

28. Bembo and Fazzello mention an eruption which occurred towards the
close of the 15th century, during which a current of lava flowed from
the great crater, and destroyed a portion of Catania. In 1533 Filoteo,
of whom we have before spoken as one of the earliest historians of Etna,
descended into the crater, which possessed its present funnel-like form.
He found at the bottom a hole, not larger than a man's head, from which
issued a thin moist sulphurous vapour.

29. In March, 1536, a quantity of lava issued from the great crater, and
several new apertures opened near the summit of the mountain and emitted
lava. It divided into several streams, flowing in different directions,
one towards Randazzo, a second towards Aderno, and a third towards
Bronte. The lava swept everything before it; at the same time quantities
of smoke and ashes were ejected, the mountain was convulsed, and fearful
noises were heard. Three new craters were formed on the south and west
sides of the mountain, and on the 26th of March twelve new craters, or
_bocche_, opened between Monte Manfre and Monte Vituri. A physician of
Lentini, named Negro di Piazza, having approached too near to the scene
of the eruption, was destroyed by a volley of