Mount Etna to widespread reports of up to 15,000 (or even 20,000) human fatalities caused by the lava, contemporaneous accounts written both in Italian and English mention no deaths related to the 1669 eruption (but give very precise figures of the number of buildings destroyed, the area of cultivated land lost, and the economic damage). Therefore, it is uncertain where the enormous number of fatalities can be attributed. One possibility is confusion between this eruption and an earthquake that devastated southeast Sicily (including Catania) 24 years later in 1693. A study on the damage and fatalities caused by eruptions of Etna in
Mount Desert Island Some residents stress the second syllable ( ) in the French fashion, while others pronounce it like the English common noun "desert" ( ). French explorer Samuel de Champlain's observation that the summits of the island's mountains were free of vegetation as seen from the sea led him to call the island (meaning "island of barren mountains"). There are four towns on Mount Desert Island: Deep shell heaps indicate American Indian encampments dating back 6,000 years in Acadia National Park, but prehistoric data is scanty. The first written descriptions of Maine coast Indians, recorded 100 years after European trade contacts