Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1855-06-07

gun carriages out of the mouldy boards
and raises an earthwork when other:
would founder in the loose sand or si
down disparingly on immovable rocks
There can hardly be want of skilled
arti6cersiin an army, every Russian o.
which can do almost anything with hi.
az, from making cart wheel to the
carving of neat figure of st. Nicholas
And as we have to deal with Russian
garrison, and not with Germans ol
Spaniards, the Russian garrison alway:
manages to do as much at night as We
undid in the day. 1t is whispered in
our ranks that the Russian gunners are
chained to their guns Perhaps they
are. Itrequires a fortitude almost more
than human to stand in those Russian
batteries, into which our enormous pro-
jeetiles are pitched with unerring aim.
Perhaps the working parties, that work
night and day in what we would call
the engineers yard of Sevastopol, are
also chained to their jobs, or they are
bribed by money and drink, or inspired
by fanatic zeal for the supremacy of
Russia, and the triumph of the orthodox
church. To us it matters very little
what secret springs are at work to pro-
duce the results which each day call us
to fresh exertions, and demand fresh
victims. Whether the thousands that
creep out every night, and work likein-
sects in an ant hill, are chained in gangs
or driven forward at the point of the
bayonet, or by the fear of field pieces
loaded to the muzzle with grape shot
posted in their rear, or whether they
ply their spades and picks, and raise
their gabions under the inspiration of
drink, or patriotism, or religion, the re-
suit to us is always the same. The guns
which we silence by day raise their
voices again next morning; the plat
forms we have broken have been re-
placed by fresh ones; the earth and the
gabions which flew into the air as if
hurled up by volcano, as our shells,
diving deep into the ground, burst be-
meath them--that the earth and those
gabions are rearranged, reflled, and re-
placed when our batteries awake from
their nightly torpor.
Correspondence of the Daily News.l
ERUPTIoN OF MOUNT VEsUyIUs.-NA-
Piles, Wednesday, May 9, 1855.--Eve-
rything in Naples is for the present ex-
tinguished by one great fact-the erup-
ton of VesuvIus. King, Ministers, and
policemen, in their several spheres, are
all scorched and shriveled up into moth
ingness. I am disposed to think that
Neapolitan might now wear girdle |
round his waist or beard, or a wide |
awake, so all absorbing is the eruption
of Vesuvius. We have been expecting
and longing for it for some time. The
wells at Resina had been dried up
More than once since 1850, the noun
tain has thundered and smoked, and in
the beginning of the year a portion of
the crater fell in. Great numbers of
strangers have, therefore, waited till
very late in the season, in the hope of
seeing this extraordinary spectacle, and
have just taken their leave, when the
mountain, as in "despetto," breaks out.
The principal guide, who is called Coz
zalino, reported on the morning of the
list May that he had just assembled the
and that arriving at the sum-
NIT there were thousand reports as of
cannon, and then there was thrown up a
discharge Of fred-hot stones. The rain
and mist and smoke, however, all min
yled together, prevented near ap-
oroach or nearer observation, and we
are therefore for the present left to our
1naided observations. During the whole
If yesterday nothing was to be seen but
smoke and cloud, which enyeloped not
,nly the mountain but the whole coast,
md then swept away in immense vol
lines toward Capri. In the very CEN
er of the cloud, however, there might be
een an ashy, sulphurous colored plain,
which, by shade difference in the col
n, and by the well marked outline, in
Heated that it was not all smoke, but ,
hat lava was coming down. As eve
ling came on the heavens were in ,
bright glow, and the whole population /
locked down to the mole of Santa Lucia !
o see the magnificent spectacle. Itwas !
me of those underlined scenes which !
rive the imagination full play. The d,
orm of the mountain was indistinguish- !
lble-nothing was to be seen but clouds, ,
imoke and fire. Up to the very zenith, ,
he sky was covered with large bulbous !
;louds, black as ink and fringed with !
White; underneath, and halfway down ;
he mountain, everything was on fire, ,
While right in the center of it shot up ;
.one of black smoke. Still lower again. !
lark clouds covered the base of the :
mountain, having, too, as their center :
,iece and contrast, the river of lava :
which is running down towards Resina. !
4 few days since l was exploring with !
he miners, among the ruins which still +
lie buried under the modern city. The =
mountain was rumbling :
nd smoking, and referring the inhabi- !
ants, as it were, to the history of the !
'ast; but they took no notice of it, and :
doubt whether they now do so, except :
o calculate the amount of profit it may d.
ring in to them; for an eruption of We ;,
uyius is to them as good as fire to the !
.ondon thieves. During the whole of