and twirling like an enormous, fiery earthworm, till it gets to the air outside, and runs off down the mountain in a stream of fire. And so you may see two eruptions one of burning stones above, and one of melted at once, 5 lava below. CHARLES KINGSLEY: Madam How and Lady Why. What is a volcano? a cone? Read carefully so that you can give an answer to the question which forms the first paragraph. After reading paragraph 2 explain how a volcano is built. What is the meaning of the word crater? Give a synonym for cunning. Why do some craters contain lakes? What makes them cupshaped? What is a funnel? In a volcanic eruption, why do the stones come out before the lava? Where does this come out? What comparison does Kingsley make to help you to imagine how the streams of melted lava look? Spelling. Funnel, crater, volcano, eruption, lava, burrows. - Composition. The kind of writing which is intended to explain something is called exposition. As in descriptive writing, the first thing is to be sure you understand the thing you intend to explain. Then outline your composition, selecting the main topics for your paragraphs. In writing a story you had little trouble with the arrangement of your paragraphs, for they generally follow one another in order of time. You will find it somewhat harder in exposition. The best way to learn how to do this is to study the way some good author has done it. Paragraph 1.* Tells why a volcano is like a cone. Paragraph 2. Tells why the opening in the cone is called a crater. Paragraph 4. Explains an eruption. Paragraph 5. Explains the bursting through on the side. * In this numbering, we omit the two paragraphs of one sentence each. Try reading paragraph 4 directly after paragraph 2, or change the position of any other paragraph. You will see at once that the author had a reason for his arrangement. He began with the cone. The crater is part of the cone, so that should come next. The shape of the crater of course should be explained before going on to a new subject, the eruption. The last paragraph completes the account of the eruption. Take a short exposition from some text-book,-your geography, for instance. Read only three or four paragraphs, and see if you can make an outline, writing down the topic, or the topic sentence if there is one, for each paragraph. 16 AN ERUPTION OF MOUNT ETNA WE had not proceeded far before a new sign called my attention to the mountain. Not only was there a perceptible jar or vibration in the earth, but a dull, groaning sound, like the muttering of distant thunder, began to be heard. The smoke increased in amount, and, as we advanced 5 further to the eastward, and much nearer to the great cone, I perceived that it consisted of two jets, issuing from different mouths. A broad stream of very dense, white smoke still flowed over the lip of the topmost crater and down the eastern side. As its breadth did not vary, 10 and the edges were distinctly defined, it was no doubt the sulphurous vapor rising from a river of molten lava. Perhaps a thousand yards below, a much stronger column of mingled black and white smoke gushed up, in regular beats or pants, from a depression in the mountain side, between two small cones. All this part of Etna was scarred with deep chasms, and in the bottom of those nearest the opening, I could see the red gleam of fire. The 5 air was perfectly still, and as yet there was no cloud in the sky. When we stopped to change horses, I felt the first violent trembling of the earth and the awful sternness of the sound. Groups of the villagers were gathered 10 in the streets which looked upward to Etna, and discussing the chances of an eruption. "Ah," said an old peasant, "the Mountain knows how to make himself respected. When he talks, everybody listens." The sound was the most awful that ever met my ears. It was a hard, pain15 ful moan, now and then fluttering like a suppressed sob, and had, at the same time, an expression of threatening and of agony. It did not come from Etna alone. It was in the air, in the depths of the sea, in the earth under my feet everywhere, in fact; and as it continued to 20 increase in violence, I experienced a sensation of positive pain. As we rode along, all the rattling of the coach over the rough road could not drown the awful noise. There was a strong smell of sulphur in the air, and the thick 25 pants of smoke from the lower crater continued to increase in strength. The sun was fierce and hot, and the edges of the sulphurous clouds shone with a dazzling whiteness. A mounted soldier overtook us, and rode beside the coach, talking with the postilion. He had been up to the mountain, and was taking his report to the governor of the district. The heat of the day and the continued trembling of the air lulled me into a sort of 5 doze, when I was suddenly aroused by a cry from the soldier and the stopping of the coach. At the same time, there was a terrific peal of sound, followed by a jar which must have shaken the whole island. We looked up to Etna, which was fortunately in full 10 view before us. An immense mass of snow-white smoke had burst up from the crater and was rising perpendicularly into the air, its rounded clouds rapidly whirling one over the other, yet urged with such force that they only rolled outward after they had ascended to an 15 immense height. It might have been one minute or five, —for I was so entranced by this wonderful spectacle that I had lost the sense of time,- but it seemed instantaneous (so rapid and violent were the effects of the explosion), when there stood in the air, based on the summit of the 20 mountain, a mass of smoke four or five miles high, and shaped precisely like the Italian pine tree. Words cannot describe the grandeur of this mighty tree. Its trunk of columned smoke, one side of which was silvered by the sun, while the other, in shadow, was 25 lurid with red flame, rose for more than a mile before it sent out its cloudy boughs. Then parting into a thou sand streams, each of which again threw out its branching tufts of smoke, rolling and waving in the air, it stood in intense relief against the dark blue of the sky. Its rounded masses of foliage were dazzling white on one 5 side, while, in the shadowy depths of the branches, there was a constant play of brown, yellow, and crimson tints, revealing the central shaft of fire. This outburst seemed to have relieved the mountain, though the terrible noise still droned in the air, and earth, 10 and sea. And now, from the base of the tree, three white streams slowly crept into as many separate chasms, against the walls of which played the flickering glow of the burning lava. The column of smoke and flame was still hurled upward, and the tree, after standing about 15 ten minutes a new and awful revelation of the active forces of nature— gradually rose and spread, lost its form, and slowly moved by a light wind (the first that disturbed the dead calm of the day), bent over to the eastward. We resumed our course. The vast belt of smoke at 20 last arched over the strait, here about twenty miles wide, and sank toward the distant Calabrian shore. As we drove under it for some miles of our way, the sun was totally obscured, and the sky presented the singular spectacle of two hemispheres of clear blue, with a broad belt of darkness. 25 drawn between them. There was a hot, sulphurous vapor in the air, and showers of white ashes fell from time to time. We were distant about twelve miles, in a straight |