The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-27 00:00:00

mourning."

k TATE OF NAPLES.

A letter from Naples, dated Dec. 21, says—The
state of Vesuvius must be my excuse for so shortly
again encroaching on your columns. Let me, how-
ever, condense my information as much as possible.
The mountain has been in a state of greater or less
agitation all the week ; but on Tuesday we had an-
other eruption, equal in magnificence to any I have
yet witnessed. It was beginning when I despatched
my last letter; as, however, the day wore on it in-
creased in power, and the same wonderful and
beautiful effects which I have already described
were again observable. At every shot that was fired
by the mountain there rose a cloud of ashes in the
form of a pine-tree, which filed off to the south as
another shot was fired and another cloud arose. As
the heavy-laden clouds escaped beyond the power
which had expelled them, and as the aqueous va-
pour was condensed, we could see at intervals
showers, nay storms of ashes fallinglike avalanches
on land and sea and still the black gorgeous masses
roiled on towards Capri, obscuring the coast which
lies opposite to Naples. Thunder and lightning,
or the roaring of Vesuvius, and electric lights,
were frequent incidents in this awful scene; the
latter, shot up from the mouth of the crater to
the summit of the dark cone, played about its
involutions, and revelled, as it were, in the li-
cence of freedom—the daylight could not obscure
its brilliancy. Towards sunset we marked that
effect of colour which is only to be seen in southern
latitudes, for then the mass of dark cloud which
hung over Vesuvius and the entire bay was lit up
with the most delicate roseate tints. Then came on
gray eve and darker night, rendered still mere so
by the electric flashes which continued to dance
above Vesuvius. On the next morning I went down
to Torre again. Alas ! it is a city on crutches ; many
cripples have fallen, and many are falling. Profes-
sor Palmieri, the great Vesuvian authority, confirms
the report of the elevation of the soil, and "hopes
that the proprietors will not rebuild until the de-
pression which may be expected has taken place."
Yet, with a fatuity which appears like madness, the
people are with difficulty held back from returning
to their perilous dwellings. It is the fact that Geri.
Della Marmora has been compelled to station sol-
diers there to prevent such folly. From all I can
gather, the mountain was split from top to bottom,
the fissure reaching far into the sea. In a few words
I will show this. There are 11 craters above Torre
del Greco, all emitting sulphurous vapours, and the
largest is from 70 to 80 feet deep and 100 feet wide.
From this point on the Bth inst., after heavy rumb-
lings and heaving of the surface, the ground was
split open, and a fiery fissure was made almost to
the outskirts of the city, through which the same
unseen power passed, opening the streets and lay-
ing bare some parts of the former buried town, and
then running into the sea. All this is evident to the
eye. You ace the fissures in all directions, and walk
daintily at times lest you fall in, or lest some rickety
building may come down.

Yesterday the Exmouth, which went to try its
Armstrongs, returned by Torre del Greco, and
made the circuit of a whirlpool, now formed, which
must be about 360 feet in diameter. It was boiling
violently, and emitted a strong sulphurous odour.
A boat 30 feet in length was let down and sent into
the centre of the whirlpool, when it was turned ra•
pidly round by the volcanic force beneath. The
sounding gave 23 fathoms of water, and the plum-
met brought up sand and sulphur. From a part of
the circumference a tail, so to call it, about 60 feet
in width, runs away in the direction of Sorrento
and is of a beautiful light green colour. All the
water here was tepid, had strong sulphurous smell,
and many fish have been destroyed. The precise
elevation of the soil on which Torre stands is 1.12
metre, and I may observe that the gases which are
emitted on land are stronger than those at sea, so
much so that one man was killed on Wednesday,
and several of my friends nearly fainted from paus-
ing near them. It is unnecessary to say that the
principal °lenient developed is carbonic acid gas.

* The students in using their sticks (which they habitu
ally carry) against the soldiers and police picked out—pro-
perly enough—the officers, and beat some of them very
severely.