FIG. 113.—Map of Volcano in the Eolian group of islands. The smaller craters partially dissected by the waves belong to Vulcanello (after Judd).] =The eruption of Volcano in 1888.=—In the Eolian Islands to the north of Sicily was located the mythical forge of Vulcan. From this locality has come our word “volcano”, and both the island and the mountain bear no other name to-day (Fig. 113). There is in the structure of the island the record of a somewhat complex volcanic history, but the form of the large central cinder cone was, according to Scrope, acquired during the eruption of 1786, at which time the crater is reported to have vomited ash for a period of fifteen days. Passing after this eruption into the solfatara condition, with the exception of a light eruption in 1873, the volcano remained quiet until 1886. So active had been the fumeroles within the crater during the latter part of this period that an extensive plant had been established there for the collection especially of boracic acid. In 1886 occurred a slight eruption, sufficient to clear out the bottom of the crater, though not seriously to disturb the English planter whose vineyards and fig orchards were in the valley or _atrio_ near the point _d_ upon the map (Fig. 113), nearly a mile from the crater rim. On the 3d of August, 1888, came the opening discharge of an eruption, which, while not of the first order of magnitude, was yet the greatest in more than a century of the mountain’s history, and may serve us to illustrate the Vulcanian phase of activity within a cinder cone. During the day, to the accompaniment of explosions of considerable violence, projectiles fell outside the crater rim and rolled down the steep slopes toward the _atrio_. These explosions were repeated at intervals of from twenty to thirty minutes, each beginning in a great upward rush of steam and ash, accompanied by a low rumbling sound. During the following night the eruptions increased in violence, and the anxious planter remained on watch in his villa a mile from the crater. Falling asleep toward morning, he was rudely awakened by a rain of projectiles falling upon his roof. Hastily snatching up his two children he ran toward the door just as a red hot projectile, some two feet in diameter, descended through the roof, ceiling, and floor of the drawing room, setting fire to the building. A second projectile similar to the first was smashed into fragments at his feet as he was emerging from the house, burning one of the children. Making his escape to Vulcanello at the extremity of the island, the remainder of the night and the following day, until rescue came from Lipari, were spent just beyond the range of the falling masses. [Illustration: FIG. 114.—“Bread-crust” lava projectile from the eruption of Volcano in 1888 (after Mercalli).]