es.

The new crater soon vomited forth a torrent of lava, which presented a
front of two miles. It encircled Monpilieri, and afterward flowed
toward Belpasso, a town of 8,000 inhabitants, which was speedily
destroyed. Seven mouths of fire opened around the new crater, and in
three days united with it, forming one large crater 800 feet in
diameter. The torrent of lava had continued to flow, and it destroyed
the town of Mascalucia on March 23d. On the same day the crater cast
up great quantities of sand, ashes, and scoriae, and formed above
itself the great double coned hill called Monti Rossi, from the red
color of the ashes of which it is mainly composed. On the 25th very
violent earthquakes occurred, and the cone of the great central crater
was shaken down into the crater for the fifth time since the beginning
of the first century A.D. The original current of lava had divided
into three streams, one of which destroyed San Pietro, the second
Camporotondo, and the third the lands about Mascalucia, and afterward
the village of Misterbianco. Fourteen villages were afterward swept
out of existence, and the lava made its way toward Catania. At
Albanello, two miles from the city, it undermined a hill covered with
corn fields, and carried it forward a considerable distance; a
vineyard was also seen floating on its fiery surface.

When the lava reached the walls of Catania, it accumulated without
progression until it rose to the top of the wall, sixty feet in
height, and it then fell over in a fiery cascade and overwhelmed a
part of the city. Another portion of the same stream threw down 120
feet of the wall and carried death and destruction in its course. On
April 23d the lava reached the sea, which it entered as a stream 1800
feet broad and forty feet deep. On reaching the sea the water, of
course, began to boil violently, and clouds of steam arose, carrying
with them particles of scoriae. The volume of lava emitted during this
eruption amounted to many millions of cubic feet. Fewara considers
that the length of the stream was at least fifteen miles, while its
average width was between two and three miles, so that it covered at
least forty square miles of surface.

For a few years after this terrible eruption AEtna was quiescent, but
in 1682 a new mouth opened on the east side of the mountain, and lava
issued from it and rushed down the precipices of the Val del Bue.
Early in January, 1693, clouds of black smoke poured fro