Abstract
IT may interest the observers who have lately been in Sicily to hear that since their departure there has been a sad falling off in the appearance of Etna. The grand wreath of steam that used to roll out of the crater at such stately leisure that you could hardly detect any movement without close attention, suddenly ceased about three days ago, and left nothing more than a tiny wisp of smoke, rather suggestive of a cottage chimney than a volcano. I call it smoke because the colour became decidedly darker than it used to be, and the manner of its dissipation is different. Formerly, after issuing from the crater it used to assume true cloud forms, and lie about the mountain exactly like clouds: now, it diffuses itself as a thin veil over the sky; sometimes being traceable in a streak as far as the coast of Calabria. Its volume is perhaps a thousandth part of what it was last week. It issues in a distinctly spiral form, the wreath oscillating apparently from side to side of the crater; and sometimes there are little puffs of extra size, whilst at others the wreath is nearly sundered.
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BRETT, J. Mount Etna. Nature 3, 266 (1871). https://doi.org/10.1038/003266b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/003266b0
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