The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1867-04-11

narrow skirt, we found ourselves in the
city OF the dead. What we saw around
us was there when Christ was upon the
earth. 1t is q place for one'simagination
to have full play You walk through
streets with ruts Of vehicles, worn deep
in the hard stone, Qet us imagine they
We're Roman chariots,l you see the
| bright, clear water running through the
aqueduet, 1t has been doing the same for
two thousand years or more. The houses
ate 50 different from our ideas of COM
fort, that it needs that must describe
them. The fronts are small, having on
each side OF the door shops, generally
hardly more than one story high, with
fiat rooi5-enteling a small yestibule
will be found on either side one or two
rooms, for servants. 1t now opens Into
q large court, paved with mosaic, in the
centre is a fountain and bath, al around
this is a eoionaee, and from this the
two courts, the inner one intended for
women. We saw the old temples Of
Justice, Venus, Mercury, Sc., also the
places where they used to make saeri-
fees 10 the Gods. These are all ia ruins,
aud il lett to ourselves to find out what
they were it would have been IN end
less task, but we had guide.hooks and q
guide-the latter are stationed by the
government to show visitors-to enter
the city you have to pay 50 cents. The
frescoes are now fading, on account Of
exposure TO the atmosphare-tla mo-
safes are broken, but they are very care
fal o everything finest, and in
fact almost everything found has been
sent to the Museum in Naples You
are not allowed to bring away the small
est stone. We went into t1e houses Of
Cicero and Sal!ast, lit made me think Of
my sehool-boy days. Coming out Of the
old gate which led to Rome, we enter
the street of the tombs. They are an
immense pile Of stone and marble,
square, some of them 80 feet high, Is or
70 W de, covered with Latin inscriptions;
in them we found urns containing the
ashes OF bodies burnt. On the street is
the house Of Diomede, who was Cover
nor Of the place-it is one of the largest
and handsomest houses | saW--a fine
garden, with beautiful view. In the
cellar o. this house was found eighteen
skeietoas-they had taken refuge there,
but the rain Of ashes blocked up every
thing. | saw skeletons of people petri-
fled ,somelooked as if they had struggled,
and others were in the most natural POI
sitions. Having spent four hours ramb-
ling around, we took the cars for Por-
tici, which IS built upon the ground over
Herculaneam, a city which was destroy
ed at the same time as Pompeii, the
latter (Pompeii,) was buried in ashes,
which makes it easy to eXeavatn ), but
Herculaneum was overrun with lava,
which is now like stone, consequently
the explorations are not very great,
although some fine works of art have
been discovered here. AS the city of
Portieo is over it, and one of the Royal
Palaces is right over the principal part,
they have been afraid to dig away-as
one place is dug, that which has been ex-
cavated is filled up with the rubbish of
the first excavation. Nothing more was
to be seen, SO we took a carriage for
Rasina, where we took horses to ascend
Mount Vesuvius. We had six in party,
four Of our officers, and two Peruvian
gentlemen. We commenced the ascent
about 3 P. NJ, mounted on nice little
ponies, which our guide kept in gallop
all the way. The road was much better
tlau / expected to find it, passed on the
We're Americans. About half way up
we stopped at place called the Hermit
tage, and drank some "Lacrina Christi"
Clears Of Christ, Ut is an Italian wine,
which l do not like-off we started
again, traversing immense beds of black
lava, it looks like huge sea serpents, and
all sorts of animals struggling in a mass,
Il cannot describe it better. We have
now reached the foot Of the cone, we
leave our horses, and up we start. 1t is
about 800 feet high, over sand (which
sinks ankle deep and lava--it is the
toughest cid climb ever took, the first
time ] rested nearly tainted. There
are guides who will either haul or carry
you np-bu6 we wanted none of these
one or two of the party started of very
brisSly, in a run, but they were the first
TO give out. We planned it SO that we
could have q sun-set from the top. After
you get Oh top, you cross to the edge of
the crater. Wishing to explore farther,
we descended into the large crater,
(which is probably 400 yards in diane
ter,l upon lava hot, and between the
creviees OF which arose fumes Of sui
phar. The inner cone is that from
which the iircs come--in circumference
il is mere not more than six or eight
feet. Up to this we went, and looked
into it, here the sulphur was awful, the
rocks We're red hot, flames issuing, fiz-
zing and steaming away--around you
lay masses of molten rocks, sulphur, &c.