The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-24 00:00:00

the first thought on such voyages—neither fine
sailing nor short voyages, but the safety of the
vessel and her freight. In the meantime we
must be thankful that we have not now to deplore
the loss of any human lives along with the good
ship which has gone down in the mighty St.
Lawrence.

Casts of People Dead 1,800 Years Ago,
NEWLY TAKEN FROM TEE RUINS OF POMPEII.

The correspondent of our chief morning contemporary
has recently given the following graphic picture of the
horrors of that fearful 24th of August, seventeen hundred
and for.y years ago, when a fearful eruption swallowed up
Herculaneum and Pompeii, the latter within 16 years of its
rebuilding—" There are now boulevards around Pompeii,
and a road is being made for the carts to convey rubbish in
the direction of the amphitheatre. From the top of those
boulevards the visitor has a view of the whole city, and can
form a tolerably correct idea of the interior of the
houses uncovered. Excavations are now going on
on two eminences near the Temple of Isis, and
the house called Abondonza. Our inspection was
closely confined to the former site, where in a
house situated in a narrow street recently opened, we saw
several bodies, or rather forms of bodies, which now attract
universal attention. The unfortunate inhabitants of this
house fell. not on the bare ground, but on heaps of pumice
stones, and were covered to a great depth by torrents of
ashes and scoria, under which they have lain for nearly
2,000 years. One day, inside a house, amid fallen roofs
and ashes, the outline of a human body was perceived, and
M. Fiorelli, the chief of the works for excavation, soon
ascertained that there was a hollow under the surface. He
accordingly made a small hole through its covering, and
filled it up with liquid plaster of Paris, as if it were a mould.
The result was that he obtained a complete plaster statue of a
Romanlady of the first century of the Christian era. Close by
were found the remains of a man, another woman, and a
girl, with 91 pieces of silver money; four earrings and a
finger-ring, alt gold; two iron keys, and evident remains
of.a linen bag or purse. The whole of those bodies have
been carefully moulded in plaster. The first body dis-
covered was a woman lying on her right side, with
her limbs contracted, as if she had died in convulsions.
The form of the head-dress and the hair are quite distinct
On the bone of the little finger were two silver rings; and
with this body were the remains of the purse above men-
tioned with the money and keys. The girl was found in
an adjoining room, and the plaster mould taken of the
cavity clearly shows the tissue of her dress. By her
side lay an elderly woman, who had an iron ring on
her little finger. The last personage I shall describe was
a tall, well-made man, lying full length. The plas-
ter distinctly shows his form, the folds of his gar.
went, his torn sandals, his beard and hair. I contemplated
these human forms with an interest which defies expres-
sion. It is evident that all these unfortunates had made
great efforts to escape destruction. The man appears to
have perished in a vain attempt to rescue the terrified
women, who thought they could be nowhere so safe as in
their own home, and hoped that the fiery tempest would
soon cease. From the money and keys found with the body
of the first woman, she was probably the mistress of the
house and the mother of the girl. The slender bones
of her arms and legs and the richness of her head-
dress seemed to indicate a woman of noble race. From
the manner in which her hands were clenched she
evidently died in great pain. The girl does not
appear to have suffered much. From the appearance of the
plaster mould it would seem that she fell from terror as she
was running with her skirts pulled over her head. The
other woman, from the largeness of her ear, which is well
shown by the plaster, and the iron ring on her finger, evi-
dently belonged to a lower class, and was probably a ser-
vant of the family. The man appears to have been struck
by lightning, for his straightened limbs show no signs of
a death-struggle. It is impossible to imagine a more
affecting scene than the one suggested by these silent
figures; nor have I ever heard of a drama so heart-rending
as the story of this family of the last days of Pompeii."