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The greater number consisted merely of a ring of red scoriae or slags cemented together: and their height above the plain of lava was not more than from fifty to a hundred feet: none had been very lately active.
This arrangement prevents the tuyere from getting befouled by scoriae during the operation of the furnace and thus interfering with the wind. Tromp.
The scoriae are not so numerous in the vicinity of the copper mines, but "pigs" of copper have been found in the island, unlike any of the Roman period, which are perhaps Phoenician, and furnish specimens of the castings into which the metal was run, after it had been fused and to some extent refined. The weight of the pigs is from twenty-eight to thirty-seven kilogrammes.
The velocity of the mud torrent may perhaps be overestimated, but in its awful suddenness this catastrophe was evidently one with few equals. The cone destroyed may have been largely composed of rather fine ashes and scoriae, which was almost instantaneously converted into mud by the condensing steam and the boiling water ejected. The quantity of water thus discharged must have been enormous.
But I would not be beaten by the enemy upon the subject of the lapis Pharanitis mine. During the course of the day, a Jerafin Bedawi, Selim ibn Musallim, brought in scoriae of copper and iron; and on the morrow I sent him as guide to Lieutenant Yusuf, with an escort of two soldiers and eight quarrymen on seven camels.
Here it would wind down into one of the deep ravines which seam the mountain near its base, and, after following the little stream which trickled at its bottom for a short distance, turn abruptly up the opposite side, and run for a while along a crest or ridge of scoriae or disintegrated lava, only, however, to plunge into another ravine beyond.
On some of the hills, beds of calcareous matter, both in an earthy and in a crystalline form, including fragments of glossy scoriae, are associated with the basaltic strata.
Then followed a loud report, while the ground trembled, and there rose to the surface of the lava an immense bubble of vapor. This, bursting with a crackling noise, threw out to the height of about 1200 feet large quantities of red-hot stones and scoriae, which, describing parabolic curves, fell in a fiery, shower all around.
This hollowed hillock might be about fifteen feet high, and the lava that ran from under it was received into a regular channel, raised upon a sort of wall of scoriae and cinders, almost perpendicularly, of about a height of eight or ten feet, resembling much an ancient aqueduct.”
Now, the part of ejected scoriae and ashes seemed to my mind a very rough one to act. So, at last, when I could hold out no longer, I resolved to lay the case before my uncle, as prudently and as cautiously as possible, just under the form of an almost impossible hypothesis. I went to him.
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