A FEW VOLCANOES.
A mountain with its great cone smoking like a chimney, or sending up into the clouds a grand sheaf of flame, must be a splendid sight, and one never to be forgotten. But when it begins to pour forth rivers of hot lava it is time to get entirely out of sight of it, if you can. For these streams of lava are sometimes very long.
RIVER OF RED-HOT LAVA FROM MOUNT ETNA.
RIVER OF RED-HOT LAVA FROM MOUNT ETNA.
RIVER OF RED-HOT LAVA FROM MOUNT ETNA.
A hundred years ago Etna poured forth such an immense river of fiery stones, and liquid lava, and threw it out with such violence thatit rushed in cascades and whirling torrents for fifteen miles, burning up everything in its course, until it finally plunged into the sea.
ERUPTION OF COTOPAXI IN 1741.
ERUPTION OF COTOPAXI IN 1741.
ERUPTION OF COTOPAXI IN 1741.
This volcano has an eruption once in a while, but does not often give the world such a terrible one as this. Sometimes the lava only destroys the fields and vineyards near the mountain. It is a small volcano, but it has done a good deal of damage. Two hundred years ago it entirely destroyed the town of Catania.
At a short distance from it stands another small volcano, which is famous for the ruin it has caused. You have no doubt read of the destruction of the city of Pompeii; and how it was entirely buried under the ashes thrown from Vesuvius during an eruption. Nearly everybody in the place at that time perished, and now people have to dig many feet under the ground to find the houses of the buried city. A smaller city in the neighborhood, Herculaneum, was buried at the same time, by the shower of ashes.
This happened eighteen hundred years ago. But Vesuvius has not been quiet ever since that time. There have been several eruptions. In 1794 it hurled out torrents of fire from its top which rolled over a town, a few miles distant, and burned it into ruins. Strange to say, the town was rebuilt; and, a few years ago, Vesuvius visited it again with a fiery flood, which, however, only destroyed part of the town.
A very much larger volcano, Cotopaxi, has, at different times, had most frightful eruptions, but on account of its situation, has not done so much damage as Etna and Vesuvius.
Just before an eruption occurs dull roars are heard inside of the mountain, which seems to shake with the action of the lava boiling up within it. Presently columns of smoke shoot up, then sheafs of flame rise into the air with masses of cinders, and burning rocks. And then the lava-streams pour over the sides, and roll down into the plains.
Some volcanoes are always smoking when not in active eruption, but the active volcanoes usually take long rests. The people who live on, or near these burning mountains rely upon this fact for safety. But it is not a very safe reliance, for their periods of rest are very irregular; and they may break forth when least expected.
The greater number of these mountains throw out flames and lava, but some send out hot mud instead, and others boiling water.
There are volcanoes that seem to have burned themselves out, and are said to be extinct. Men can go down into the craters of these, from whence the flames, and lava formerly issued, and examine them. Some of these immense holes, or craters are now filled with forests, and in others there are lakes. Others again are nothing but rocky ravines.
Orizaba, in Mexico, is an extinct volcano, with a monstrous crater.Persons standing on the opposite sides of this crater can barely see each other, the distance between them is so great.
CRATER OF ORIZABA.
CRATER OF ORIZABA.
CRATER OF ORIZABA.
The small volcanoes are more active than the large ones. Little Stromboli is nearly always sending up flames, while the lofty Cotopaxi is quiet sometimes for a century.