Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1868-06-05
SeIseted Miseeilanlj.
UNDER THE LAVA.


PROFESSOR EVANS, of the University of
Michigan, contributes to the North Amaeri |
can Re0ieao an interesting paper upon
e Pompeii, in which he has condensed all !
that is yet known concerning the City of |
the Dead to whose fate the recent activity |
of Vesuvius gives a fresh interest. The I
origin of Pompeii is lost in antiquity. Like I
Herculaneum, which shared its fate, it was |
fabled to have been founded by Hercules,
and. some derive its name from a Greek |
word signifying procession, and referring
to the stolen cattle which the great free
booter drove into Italy from Spain. Ac
cording to another, and at least equally !
credible theory the name signifies an
entrepot or emporium, which the city was
for the beautiful and fertile country
about it, vw @W ww ww
Elegant country seats, belonging to Ro-
man patricians, who habitually passed the !
summer in this delightful region, adorned
the environs. There were villas upon the |
4. verdant slopes and wooded summit of We
suvius, whose sides bore marks of volcanic |
action, but of whose eruptions not even a
tradition remained. .9gBs.f |
Sixteen years before it's destruction |
Pompeii was visited by violent earth
quake, which destroyed many buildings |
and frightened away a few of the inhabit- |
ants. But all traces Of the catastrophe, ex-
cept those to be found in the substitution |
of a debasod architecture for the old Italian |
and Grecian styles were rapidly disap-,
pearing, when, on the 24th of August, in |
the year rs, Vesuvius shot up gigantic
column of fsmoke and vapor, ikened by the
younger Plinys who saw it from Misenum,
on the other side of the bay, to a colossal |
umbrella pine, with trunk of blackness and
boughs of fire. agitated by sudden gusts of
wind and flashing into foliage of green and
blue flames AS the splendor of this phe-
nomenon faded, showers of hot pumice-
stones, so light that they filled the
air like snowflakes and were blown even
to Africa were discharged by the moull-
tain. Floods of boiling water, mingled
with ashes, poured down the sides
Of Vesuvius in streams of steaming mud
Three days of dense darkness followed, at
1.-The expiration of which the place which
Z had known Pompeii knew it no longer. |
sThe9 city lay from twenty-fiv to thirty
feet beneath the surface. OF the deposit
above it, the lowest stratum, about FIVE
sixths of the whole, is composed of pumice-
stones. Above this are two feet Of froth-
lava (ld0G 6a00sa), into which the volcanic
mud has hardened, and still above fruit
flu. soil has accumulated The pumice-
of the walls of some houses, but not enough
to set fire to them. The lava, in harden
ing, formed perfect mold, which pre-
served the impression of the articles Of
3, furniture, the wooden carvings, the cloth
ing, the forms and features and express
sions of countenance of men and women
who were buried alive more than eighteen
hundred years ago. So delicate are these |
impressions as to indicate the rank and
the age of those who made them. The beau
tiful head and bust of a young girl, blonde !
haired, and clad in a gossamer robe; the |
body of woman of thirty, with a head |
= dress of white linen, dress of light stuff,
gathered up at one side so as to disclose
"the mold of a limb as beautiful as that |
of the Cytherean goddess" that of man |
of unusually large stature, wearing short |
coat, tight breeches of leather or coarse |
cloth, and shoes laced at the ankles, with |
prominent features and resolute look, are !
among the most perfect specimens of these
lava castings still to be seen in Naples or I
Pompeii. Specimens equally good have /
perished in consequence of the fragile
character of the lava, or the csfelessnessDr
ignorance of the excavators Some readers
may be sorry to learn that the story OF the
faithful sentry, who was bound at the city
gate, where, like "tile boy who stood on |
the burning deck" he nobly met death /
rather than desert his post, is a fiction, |
as is also the pathetic tale of the mother |
alleged to have been found with an infant |
in her arms, and two other children at her |
knees But the Journal of the excavation
confirms the reported finding of pair of |
lovers whose interlocked skeletons showed |
they died in each others embrace, and of a |
party of priests overtaken by death while |
banqueting in the temple of Isis. Alto |
gether, some six or seven hundred skeletons |
have been found thus far; but only about
a third of the city has been exposed.
Pompeii slept under the ashes of Vesu- |
vius undisturbed for nearly fifteen centu- |
ries. In 1892 a subterranean aqueduct |
was cut through the city, but the curiosity |
of the architect was not excited by. the |
houses through whose walls he dug, nor |
by the paved street which he followed for |
Z some distance In 1857 Roman arch9ol- |
ogist identified the site of Pompeii, and in |
1859 some remains were disinterred; but |
no excavations were made till 174S, and |
the discovery of the old city was not fully |
credited till 1853. Nearly another century
elapsed before the work was prosecuted
purely in the interests of science The
Spanish, Austrian, and Bourbon rulers of
Southern Italy labored in a mercenary
spirit, without system and without intelll-
gence. During the rule of the French,
from 1906 to 1916, some progress was
made; but the most decided imp,llse was
r given to the work by the Italian Govern
ment after the revolution of 1860. Since
that time several hundred men and sixty
. thousand francs year have been devoted
to the excavations, which have been put
4 under the charge of Giuseppe Fiorelli, |
who ranks among the first archaologists Of
Europe. He held the position under King
Bomba at twenty-three years of age, brit
I lost his place as the reward of his exer7
tions to- have the work prosecuted with
honesty. Il
Signor Fiorelli has adopted system of