The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-14
At the Crater of VesuVius.


which, from the nature of the case, cannot SO
frequently be recorded. | refer to the impress
sons of one who has stood upon the lip of the
crater and looked down while an eruption is
actually in progress. 1t is not always that
view Of such a scene can be obtained. 1t was
at time when crash was following crash in
manner that was quite sufficiently terrible,
and when all the sutfocating steams and vapors
were being driven to one side of the mountain
by strong wind, that we were able to go up
from the windward side, stand upon the lip of
the crater, look down into the roaring abyss,
and see what the eruption of volcano looks
like Oh the spot.
That is in truth, the only way of getting
an idea of what repository of horrors a vol
oano is. Without such a visit Vesuvius is
often little disappointing. 1t is nothing but
fine mountain, just like any other, says
Mendessohn. You may be q little disap-
pointed as you see Vesuvius from below. But
you have only to mount to the summit when
au eruption of any magnitude is in progress,
to find yourself in the presence of appalling
phenomena both of sight and sound. Choose
the last few hours of daylight for your ascent,
and then, as the darkness closes round, and
the world below becomes hidden from your
view, you stand at the crater in the presence
of q scel for which no language can be very
extravagant For experienced monntaineers
the effort required for the ascent is nothing
remarkable, but for ordinary people it is
laborious enough.
You arrive at the edge of the crater, and
there you behold scene full of awe and ma
jesty. The suddenness with which you come
upon it is quite startling. Going up you
neither see nor hear anything. One moment
you are clambering up the side of the cone
amid profound silence; the next moment, as
your head rises above the crater lip, you en-
counter a roar and q blaze which make you
shrink back little. This surprise is occa-
stoned, l suppose, by the formation Of the
a i. bToa nurlu uub tn
quite sharp lip, about half mile in diameter
and some hundred yards in depth. Towards
the bottom of this bowl, on the opposite side
to where we stood, was a great hole, from
which all the projeotileS of the eruption were
shot, the surface of the bowl being composed
of Jumps of lava, stones, and cnders, all of
them smeared with sulphur, precisely like
those upon which we were standing. As you
mount the cone there is between you and the
gulf an enormous wall, which dulls every
thing alike for eye and ear. Even while on
the sleeps of the cone itself you might be
unaware that the mountain was disturbed.
But single step seems almost enough to
Z transfer you from the most deathlike stiffness
ito the grandest exhibition of force it is posi-
BILE to conceive. Instead of the monotonous
dull black of CONCEALED lava on the lower
levels, you have the deep brick red of stones
that have been under the action of fire, the
brightest vermilion, and every Imaginable
shade of orange and yellow that sulphur de-
posts are capable of taking. The ground is
hot too: so hot, indeed that you cannot keep
your foot on the same spot for many seconds
together. Between the chinks Of the stones
you can see that few inches below the sur
face it is actually red hot. You thrust in the
end of your stick for a moment and you pull
it out charred. Over all the farther half of the
crater there hangs dense cloud of
smoke and vapor; all around you there
is an atmosphere of sulphur which
ofc c1i D,olI
holes about your feet there issue with a
hiss sulphurous jets of steam which
nearly choke you as you pass over them; and
then as you look down into the actual abyss
you are face to face with the most appalling
phenomena both of sight and sound which,
perhaps, the whole of Europe has to OFFER
Among the crowd of strange sensations that
are experienced at such time the phenomena
of sound are perhaps the most wonderful Of
all What meets the ear is, if anything, even
more terrific than what meets the eye. Even
to sgt the eruption is not just what the
imagination paints it beforehand. 1t does not
insist, as the pictures necessarily lead one to
ppose, OF continuous shower at all. Still
1 ss does il consist of a continuous shower of
b ack ashes shot out from fire blazing on
the top of the mountains; it is rather series
O. explosions. But the roar and glare of the
great abyss are continuous. You look into the
pit, and though you see no actual flame,
yet is sides are in state of constant in
candescenoe; from the mouth of it there
rises up necessarily dense cloud of steam;
and in the depths of it below you hear the
noise OF preparation for the outburst that is
next to come. Then you hear sharper
crackle, and then without further warning
follows a loud explosion, which shoots into
the air torrent OF white-hot missiles of every
shape and size. So enormous are the forces
at work that not only small pieces of stone
and sulphur, such as you might carry away
as mementOes of your visit, but huge blocks
of mineral, each enough to load railway
ballast wagon, and all in a state of per-
III fectly white heat, are tossed up as though
they were so many cricket balls. The ex-
plOson lasts, perhaps, no longer that a
minute; and then there is q cessation of some
feconds, with the noise only OF internal prepa-
ration OLce more, after which the explosion is
repeated. That was nothing to the almost
Supplying din that was going on before us
moments when the daylight was over, and
the world below could no longer be distin-
guished-when we had nothing but the clear
starlight overhead, and were truly alone with
the mountain; when the varied coloring OF
the ground had disappeared in the darkness,
= and nothing could be seen but the CLEAN O
the burning earth through the chinks at Oul
feet, while the white-hot glaring ribbon o
molten lava glided languidly down the noun
tain al our side, and before us was the flashing
OF the inner fire upon the cloud of vapor over
hanging the abyss. Take all these together,
and the scene is, indeed rather different from
what you picture TO yourselves as you calmly
read in your newspaper that VesuVius is onc(
again il a state of eruption.