Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1840-06-24

before they burn them. You are now at
he foot ofthe cone all that remains to be
done is to ascend vertically along the ex-
ternal sides of the volcano, hating on
your way to cast a glance at a lateral
plateau, called La Somma, which was no
doubt, at one time. the main focus of We
suvius.
If your heart has not failed Won along
this ladder Of dried lava, you will reach
the top of the volcano in three quarters of
an hous. Here the sight begins-a ter
rible. original, and unexpected one, not
withstanding all the descriptions given of
il. Imagine a funnel FIVE hundred metres
deep, whose upper edges present innumer-
able crevices. whilst from the lower part
rise clouds Of sulphurous Yapor, which es-
cape by numberless apertures, bordered
with dust of a lively orange color. If
you stop to admire in the distance the city
of Naples, softly spreading round the gulf
and at your feet the ever-smoking crater,
you feel the fire penetrating your boots,
and the guide will urge you to walk, in
order 10 avoid accidents. The ground,
when strongly struck. yields a certain me
tallic sound, and as you go round the
mountain you meet with gaping apertures,
at the bottom Of which burns a red and
fattish fame. have plunged into one of
these pits a long chesnut-tree stick, fresh
cut, and covered with its still moist bark.
and it has instantly caught fire. AS you
kneel before these Internal gates, to ascer-
tain their depth, you distinctly perceive.
within hand-reach, the fame bending up.
on itself, dense, quiet, and almost limpid
it discharges clouds of sulphuric acid gas,
which excite a cough, and soon compel
the observer to quit the spot. The ground,
if such a name can be given to the dan.
gerous floor which covers the oriice OF
the volcano, is strewed with grey lava,
ashes, melting sulphur, and pyrite sub.
stances, whence escapes, at intervals, a
white smoke, which affects your eyes and
lungs, and yet you canno retire without
reluctance from that awful scene. One
can scarcely conceive how that crater, so
narrow in its lower part, has vomited
heaps of lava large enough to form a
mountain four times as bulky as the We.
suvius itself, without mentioning the ash.
es, small pebbles, and masses Of boiling
water. which the wind has sometimes car
ried to enormous distances.
Notwithstanding its fearful aspect, the
Vesuvius may be approached even when
its sruptions take place. The lava itself
whose progress is so formidable and in.
flexible, advances with extreme slowness
One has time to avoid or fly before it.
| Tho ciIrhtoo% nhak1nl1 ~t1~. 81. !. -
round objects, burns them if they be com.
bustible, and envelopes and petrifes them
as it cools, if they be not so. Thus it is
that the city of Herculaneum has been
sealed into a semi-metallic mass, and as il
were, cast In the lava which now covers
it. Pompeii has disappeared under a dis.
charge of Vesuvius, under a shower OF
ashes and little stones which have gradu.
ally, though rapidly, covered it, Just as
certain Alpine villages disappear beneath
the snow in our severe winters. Such is
the reason why so much money has been
expended in uncoyering but a few small
parts of H~eTculaneum, namely, its theatre.
which continues hid in utter darkness -
whilst a third part of Pompeii has been
cleared, exhibits itself to the open sky, and
renders US contemporary with its inhabit.
ants. Let US, therefore, hasten down the
Vesuvius and view its ravages, which have
been miraculously preserved for us in its
whole splendor, a city of thirty thousand
souls buried for eighteen hundred years
past.
Herculaneum and Pompeii seem both
very distant from the focus of Vesuyius.
They are now separated from it by inhab-
itants and cultivated spaces which have
been conquered from the lava and recov-
cred from the volcano. The village of
Portici Is built upon the roofs of the first
Of those two cities. which was pe.rifed on
the day OF Its death, and into the tomb of
which one descends as into a mine, by a
sort of shaft, ending at the theatre where.
it is conjectured, the inhabitants were as
sembled when the eruption surprised them.
1t was In 1859 that the ruins of the CITY
made their appearance for the first time
in an excavation made at random. which
was resumed in 1920, and finally organ
lied in 1888, with admirable success
The discovery of the theatre and of everv
thing else has taken place since that peri
cd. The theatre is of Greek architecture.
it is ornamented with a fine front, and
with marble columns standing on the stage
itself; the spectators occupied twenty-one
rows of steps. with a gallery above, m
belllshed with bronze statues.
One can still Distinguish the places al
lotted to the magistrates, the scene behind
which the actors withdrew, and a number
OF objects which excite in the traveller
mingled astonishmenl and emotion. There
are also at Herculaneum a Forum sur
rounded with porticos and temples. which
are almost all of them damaged, and a
gaol with old rusty iron bars, to which the