Daily American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1852, 1852-01-31

comfortably seated, and carry her up the noun
tain two men before her and two behind. at
each fifty rods, the four men give place TO four
fresh ones Our three ladies' perched upon the
shoulders of their porters, made laughable con-
trast with us gentlemen, whose mode Of ascent
was very different. My guide put his donkey's
bride over his head and breast, and then gave
thereins to me, and with these in my left hand,
and long white-oak Vesuvian cane in my
right began to ascend. The steepness SEEM
ed to increase. Deep snow, covered with black
ashes, made cold and dirty mixture to walk
in, besides afording only doubtful foothold
to the sinking climber For once, / thanked
Heaven that | was not fat Glow hard to
climb the steep ascent!' ! truly thought that
my knees would separate at their joints. For
nearly two miles we had this labor, when all
exhaustion seemed to vanish at the sudden
opening OF the next cone, where the crater was
Just belching forth volumes of smoke, fire, and
stones.
We soon reached a resting place, the edge
of the crater of A. ID. 79, over whose surface
of q mile in width were seen issues of birthstone
smoke through innunierable small crevices
But our eyes were fastened upon the eruptions
from the main crater This crater is mile
in diameter. We approached the cone, which
it has made for itself, and were about 80 rods
distant from the upper edge of the mouth, and
here the fiery missiles thrown into the air came
rolling down the cone till they reached our
very feet. The eruptions were on this wise
A deep groaning thunder rolls within the body
of the mountain; Immediately after this there
issues from the crater globe of white, ashes
colored smoke, as from the mouths of ten thou
sand cannons mingled into one This cloud Of
smoke has not risen more than fifty OF a hun
dred feet, when 10! shoots up blast of stones
red hot from the boiling cauldron, most Of them
weighing less than fifty pounds, yet many
weighing from one and two to even five hundred
pounds. Their projectile force is such as to
send them six hundred feet into the air, yet
seldom in the same direction. Their velocity
is so great that they could be distinctly seen
cleaving the smoke in their upward way, like
arrows through mist Having mounted far
into the clear sky, they fell. Yes, they fell
with speed which such high bodies gain some,
back into the burning ocean whence they came,
but many upon the sides of the cone, far from
its apex and there striking the black, hard
lava and beds of blackened ashes, rolled to the
bottom where we stood, retaining their full red
ness to their journeys end. | stood trembling
in mute wonder before the awful sublimity.
When the shower fell on our part of the cone,
it's sides for a mile each way appeared alive
with liquid fire. Every five or six minutes was
repeated this shower of fire-balls. Night came
on; and what added terrific grandeur to the
scene was the premature darkness caused by
the overhanging clouds of smoke At times
these clouds are 50 dense as to shut out the sun,
and make a Vesuvian night even in the full
blaze of day. | felt that horror. striking chilly
gloom which we sometimes experience Just be-
fore a dreadful thunder storm.
At the intervals between the spasmodic
heavings OF the mountain an awful and reli-
gious stiffness reigns everywhere. A harsh word
would seem a proclamation in the presence of
such a power. A solemn awe penetrated my
inmost soul, as the place trembled by the all
active energy of God. We were silent and
seemed, like Moses, smtten down by the over
powering sublimity of the scene. To what ut
ter nothingness does man feel himself reduced,
when he is shaken by that Power which he
knows can rend the earth asundcr. We now
realized that we were in the dwelling place Of
power, and that here Nature spoke to our hearts
with divine emphasis. To the last hour of
my recorded time, will these sounds yibrate on
my ear.
But am not going to preach, like volcano,
or to make this journal a pillar of fre-so, to
my narrative. After watching these convul-
sions of the mountain and these discharges of
the crater, we began to examine the region
around us, and saw spread before and on each
side hundreds of acres of lava, lying in broken
masses, somewhat resembling the confusion of
rocks on the sea shore at Cohasset. We began
to walk over these crags, and soon found their
warmth penetrating our feet. could not bear
my hand on the lava over which we were
treading 1t was the lava of last year; we were
in the old crater of 49, and but thin crust Of
pctrified scoric kept us from sinking into the
liquid lake of fire below On we went; and
the sulphurous smoke, issuing from the open
seams under our feet, almost suffocated us.
About sixty rods from our last starting place.
going south, we came TO n scam up to which
the red lava rushed at every heave Of the noun
tain. | wished to watch this Standing over
it, had to wait but two minutes. The growl-
ing thunder announced the cOnvulsion. At
that moment the ocean of fire within rose and
it thrust the smoke through the seam with n
violent kissing noise, exactly like that made by
the escape of steam from an engine. lmmedi-
ately came the melted lava, and concluded
that [ was too near to a hot place. The soles
Of my boots began to curl, and one of our ladies
tainted The sulphurous vapors had taken the
colors out of the dresses Of our rich Jewesses
and never did ladies look more streaked and
speckled! On we went and soon came to many
OF these seams or cracks which ran up and
down the mountain for a mile or more. put
my stick into many of them, and at each time
it took fire. When the sulphur issued from
them, in yellowish smoke, they seemed like 50
many belts of parallel longitudinal lines.
watched the heaving pulsations Of the living
mass with some anxiety. These seams or open
ings show, like arteries the moments Of convul-
sion within, and keep time with every spasm Of
the pile. The heat was so great that as !
looked over the surrounding acres the air had
that trembling quiver and wavy uprising which
IL seem nvpr n highly hnatnl stove fclt aS III