Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1855-06-09
ERUPTION of Vesuvius.

MALES. MAY l0-The lava has now adyanc-
ed ten miles from its source, and is doing ter
rible damage. Last night | went to the scene
of most stirring interest, after an interval of
two days. How changed the neighborhood in
two days Where | walked on Sunday night
was now sea of fire. The side road by (which
| had come down into the main stream from
Pollena and Massa di Somme was now full of
blackened coke. The houses on the borders
of the village had fallen-in one thirty poor
people lived a small chapel was swallowed up,
q gentleman's villa, and a sad extent of vine
yard and garden ground. On the other side
of the great lava bed another stream was
branching off to San Sebastiano. We had
hoped to have crossed it, and assembled TO the
cascade again. but it was no longer possible
for, as one SAYS speaking of marshy country
in the winter, the lava was out. The fire here
had begun to enter the burial ground of the
little town, but was diverted from its course
by wall On the opposite side of the stream
were the King and all the royal family The
banks on either side were thronged with curl
ous and anxious multtudes, whose faces were
lighted up with the blaze of hundreds of tor
ches, and with the more respendent flame OF
the rapidly descending lava. Since the morn
river of glowing coke. As it moved on, the
tens of thousands of Jumps rolled and tumbleC
one over the other, cracking and grinding, anC
grating and when, from the very face of it 6
large lump fell off, the appearance was that O
an iron furnace when the iron is being drawn
To make the resemblance more complete a
such times men darted forwards with lone
poles, taken from the neighborng vineyards
and pulled out great masses of lava, in which
they embedded money for sale. What struck
me at first, and strikes me as the most majes
tic feature in the whole scene, is the slow, 81
lent, irresistible motion of that fiery food. Ac
tive almighty power without an effort! Sweep
ing everything before it, overcoming every oh
stacle, growing up against intervening walls o
houses, and deyouring them bodily, and thel
marching on in the same silent, unrelenting, il
resiStible manner as before. There was spo
beneath my feet where wall of mason worl
had been built to break the violence of TIN
winter floods to this spot all eyes were diree
ted The fiery river would fall over it in al
hour as yet it was distant from it 10 yards
perhaps. Gradually it rose in height, an,
swelled out its vast proportions, and then vas
masses fell off and rolled forward then
swelled again as fresh matter came pressiu:
down behind, and SO 1t broke, and on 1t rolled
again and again till it had arrived at the yer,
edge. There was general buzz and murmu
of voices The royal family stood opposite t.
me, intermingled with the crowd, looking OF
with intense anxiety. AT last it broke, no
hurriedly, still with a certain show of majesty
At first a few small Jumps fell down thel
poured over pure liquid of metal, like thicl
treacle, clinging mass to mass, from its glutin
Gus character, and last of all tumbled over gi
gantic Jumps of scoria. Then on it moved once
more in its silent, regular course swelling uE
and spreading over the vineyards on either side
The expectation is that the lava, should the
eruption continue, will flow down to the Pontt
Maddaloni, and into the sea. So grand anC
so destructive an eruption has not been know
for many years, and even now We cannot tel
how or when it will terminate. The mountain
is literally scanned with lava, and many fea
violent explosion as the final scene of the ira
gedv.