Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-03-21
0aurtestrr Daily spp.

AN AMERICAN BEFORE VEsUvIUs =
Brooks, of the New York Express in a late
letter from Naples, says:
81 have seen all "the sights" of Naples that
one can see in five hard working days-from
down under the earth, in the Grotto of Pausal-
ippo, and in the ovens of the Grotto del Cane,
where they half kill dogs, for show in the
carbonic acid gas or to subterranean Hercula-
neum and unearthed Pompeii, and up to the
very crater of Vesuvius. Nothing is new
but Vesuvius, and Vesuvius is always new.
Years ago, i'll fresher and foolisher days, I
went far down into its hot crater, till the very
shoes were burned beneoth my feet-but now
the crater cannot be assembled, unless some
fool is hardy enough to buy a rope and risk
sutfocation in the sulpher.
The crater of my earlier days is no more.
The sand-like ashes l then waddled up, sink
ing to the knees at every step, do not exist in
the present ascending place, for now footed
it upon the hard scoria-the cragged ragged
bits of lava, that tear the shoe to pieces and
lacerate the hands, if you fall upon them. /
did not think the ascent on foot was very diff
cult now. Ladies are almost always carried
up If they go at all, and the ascent for them,
in their dresses, must be very difficult and
painful, but | saw one sturdy English girl, in
proper habiliments, making the effort and sue
ceeding we'll She was intending to have an
evening or twilight view of the bay from the
summit. Few but English women, trained
In their hard climate and in the open air, in all
sorts of weather, have muscle and courage
enough for mount; but at nine at night,
when [ left the sea of fire that is now rolling
down the mountain beyond the cone, the lady
had not made her appearance.
'See Naples, and die" was the enthusiasts
tic ejaculation of some traveller, when excited
and overwhelmed by the beauty of its bay and
burning fires of Vesuvius l don't say all
that, but do say the sea of fire l saw last
night, under the cone of Vesuvius, was worth
a voyage across the Atlantic. Imagine Mag
ara to be on fire, and the rolling, rushing cat
aract to be red hot lava struggling, rolling, and
you may begin to have an idea of the specta-
Gle now presented at night, as the streams of
red lava come almost to your feet. He who
has been GU the mer de glace, the sea of ice, in
Alpine Switzerland, can have an idea of the
spectacle Vesuvius now presents, if he will
imagine that ice to be on fire in motion, and
falling down the Alpine hill
rode to it, jumped on it, where, from ex-
posure to the air, it had become hard and safe
looked at it again and again, and fingered over
1t, under an excitement and enthusiasm re-
freshing to feel, when one has become blase at
Sightseeing think could live there for a
month, in content, only upon the eggs l could
cook in the ashes and fire of the crevices.
The lava is now all the time rolling down, and
has lately deluged an excellent carriage road,
made by the King, to his Meteorological OBJ
servatory at the Hermitage. A half-deuged
house is now in the ruins. Whole fields of the
vine, the lacrima Christi (impious name for
wine) of the mountain, have been DESTROYED
Within year, two currents of lava have
swept by two sides of the Mount of the Her
mitage. The Carmete friar must have hot
place in his convent, and the observers of the
meteors must ever live in fear of being hit by
some of them"