The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1855-06-06
The Eruption of vesuvius.

The Eruption of vesuvius.
The best account of the eruption of We
suvius we can find is in the following letter,
extracted from the London Daily News:
NAPLES, May 10.
The lava has now advanced ten miles from
its source, and is doing terrible damage. |
have before me the report of CozzollnO as to
the latest changes which have taken place
about the cone. Just at the base of il lake
of fire has been formed, which looks like a
red sea in an undulatory. In the vera centre
of this has opened another crater, which is
throwing out red-hot stones.
On the morning of the 7th, the crater at
the very summit, fired, as it were, two heavy
cannonades; and after sending forth light
ming, flames and stones, broke up altogether
In the middle of the cone ten craters have
been formed, and from these the lava pours
forth like river, and runs on the side of the
Cavello as far as the Mnatore. Here four
other craters have been formed, which throw
up bilumen in the manner of pyramids, and
resemble gigantic exhibitions of fireworks.
The whole of the summit of the crater is
therefore like a sponge. and must inevitably
fall in. The thin crust trembles under your
feet. You may see the stones dance with
the tremulous movement; the part immedi
ately round the crater looks like the sides of
heated copper boiler. Such is true state
ment OF what is going on on the summit.
There are reports of an opening towards
Pompeii which is not unlikely, nd of another
towards Resina, but have not been up for
some days as the danger is now very great.
Before write again / shall make the at
tempt Last night ] went to the scene of
most stirring interest, after an interval of
two days. The whole length of this usually
quiet road was like fair, and such was the
throng of carriages which were moving on in
three lines that it was with difficulty we ever
arrived at our destination. AS we approached
the menaced neighborhood, the inhabitants
were removing their goods, and on a bridge
in the middle of the little township of Ger
colo, Through which in the winter time
thunders down from the summit of Vesuvius
one, of those mountain rivers well known in
Italy stood 3 company Of sappers.
Creeping under this solid handsome bridge
into the bed Of the river, we went up in face
of the lava, which was now coming rapidly
down. Here again were sappers raising
mounds on either side to divert the ruin from
some private grounds, and keep the lava in
one straight course. The smoke which rose
over the heads of the multitudes told US we
were close on the spot, and climbing up the
bank and walking along the top, we looked
down on this mighty mass of fire. How
changed the neighborhood in two days!-
Where walked on Sunday right was now a
sea of fire. The side road by which had
come down into the main stream from Pollena
and Massi di Somme was now full of black
ened coke. The houses on the borders OF
the village had fallen--in one thirty poor
people lived; small chapel was swallowed
up, gentleman's villa, and sad extent of
vineyard and garden ground.
j On the other side of the great lava bed
another stream was branching off to San Sc
bastiano. 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 a marshy country in the winter,
the lava 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 curious
and anxious multitudes, whose faces were
lighted up with the blaze of hundreds of
torches and with the more resplendant flame
of the rapidly descending lava. Since the
morning it had moved mile. 1t is like a
} vast river of glowing coke.
{ As it moved on, the tens Of thousands of
Jumps rolled anu tumOleu one over the other,
cracking and grinding, and grating; and
Z when, from the very face of it, large lump
fell off, the appearance was that of an iron
furnace when the iron is being drawn. To
make the resemblance more complete, at
! such times men darted forwards with long
poles, taken from the neighboring vineyards
and pulled out great masses of lava, in which
they embedded money for sale. What struck
me at first, and still strikes me as the most
majestic feature in the whole scene, is the
slow, silent, irresistible motion of the fiery