Democratic enquirer. [volume] (M'arthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1867-1873, 1869-01-07
Toreiaa
AsTrRRING SKETCH.
At tins crater of vesuvius.
trrom mo pail Mali dazette.l

cannot,so frequently be recorded. Irefer
to the impressions 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 sucha scene
can be obtained. 1t was, al o time when
crash was following crash IN o manner that
was quite sufficiently terrible, and when all
the suffocating steams and vapors were be-
ing driven TO one side Of the mountain by
a strong wind, that we were able to 60 up
from the windward side stand upon the
lip of the crater, look down into the roar
ing abyss, and see what the eruption Of a
volcano looks like on the spot
That is, in truth, the only way Of getting
an idea of what q repository Of horrors
volcano is, Without ouch avislt, Vesuyius
is often little disappointing. II is moth
ING but a Ane mountain, just like any other,
saws Mehdessohn. You may be a little
disappointed as you see Yesuyius from be-
low. But you have only to mount to the
summit when an eruption Of any magnitude
is in progress to find yourself in the pre-
sence Of appalling phenomena both fsight
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 presence ola scenetor which
no language can be very extrayagant. For
experienced mountain RS the effort re-
quired for the ascent is nothing remark
able; but for ordinary people it is labor
ious enough.
You arrive at the edge Of the crater, and
there you behold scene full OF awe and
majesty. 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 ora
ter lip, you encounter a roar and blaze
which make you shrink back little. This
surprise is occasioned, suppose, by the
formation Of the crater 1t is huge bowl
which comes up to quite a sharp lip, about
half mile in diameter and some hundred
yards in depth. Towards tte bottom of
this bowl, on the opposite side TO where We
stood, was great hole, from which all the
projectiles of the eruption were shot; the
surface of the bowl being composed Of
Jumps of lava, stones, and cinders, all of
them smeared with sulphur, precisely like
those upon which we we're standing. AS
you mount the cone there is between you
and the gulf an enormous wall, which dulls
everything alike-for eye and ear. Even
while on the sleeps Of the cone itself you
might be unaware that the mountains was
disturbed. But single step seems almost
enough to transfer you from themost death
like stiffness to the grandest exhibition OF
force it is possible to conceive. Instead of
the monotonous dull black of congealed
lava on the lower levels, you have the deep
brick red of stones that have been under
the action of fire, the brightest vermillion,
and every imaginable shade of orange and
yellow that sulphur deposits are capable of
taking, The ground is hot too; so hot, In
deed, that you cannot keep your foot on
the same spot for many seconds together
Between the chinks of the stones shot out
from fire blazing on the top of the cone
you can see that few inches below the
surface it is actually red hot. You thrust
in the end Of your stick for q moment and
you pull it out charr6d. Over all the far
ther half of the crater there hangs dense
cloud Of smoke and vapor; all around you
there is an atmosphere of sulphur which
sets you coughing; from numberless small
holes about your feet there issue with
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 10 face with the most
appalling phenomena. both of sight and
sound, which, perhaps, the whole OF Eu-
rope has to offer. Among the crowd of
strange sensations that are experienced at
such time the phenomena OF sound are
perhaps the most wonderful ofall. What
meets the ear is, if anything, even more
terrific than what meets the eye. Even to
sight the eruption is not just what the i'm
agination paints it beforehand. 1t does
not consist, as the pictures necessarily lead
one to suppose, of a continuous shower at
all. Still less does it consist Of continu-
GUS shower Of black ashes mountain; it is
rather series Of explosions But the roar
and glare Of the deep abyss is continuous.
You look into thepit and though you SEQ
no actual fame, yet its sides are in state
of constant incandescence; from the mouth
of it there roars up necessarily q dense
cloud Of steam; and in the depths of it be-
low you hear the noise Of Preparations for
the outburst that is next to come, Then
you hear o sharper crack, and then with
out further warning follows loud explo.
sion, 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 memen-
toes Of your visit, but huge blocks of min
eral, each enough to load railway ballast
wagon, and all in state of perfectly white
heat, are tossed up as though they we're so
many cricket-balls. The explosions last,
perhaps, no longer than o minute; und
then there is cessation Of some seconds
with the noise only Of internal preparation
once more, after which the explosion is re-
peatod. That was nothing TO the almost
din that was going on before us
moments when the daylight was over,
and the world below could no longer be
distinguished; when we had nothing but
the clear starlight overhead, and were
truly alone with the mountain; when the
varied coloring Of the ground had disap-
peared in the darkness, and nothing could
be seen but the CLEAN Of the burning earth
through the ohinks at our feet, while the
white-hot glaring ribbon of molten lava
glided languidly down the mountain at our
side, aud before us was tho flashing of the
inner FIRE upon the cloud of vapor over
hanging the abyss. lake all these togeth-
or, and the scene is indeed rather different
from what you picture 10 yourself as you
calmly read in your paper that Vesuvius is
once again in a state Of eruption
spoke just now Of the stream of lava
which glides down the mountain. In the
first place. two pecularitieg were observa-
BILE in it. One was the marvellous slowness
of It's motion. In the early part Of Its do
scent the incline over which ii had 10 pass
was precipitous; yet 30 slowly did this
moss Of liquid fire move within its bed
that its currents was only just perceptible.
It seemed to be only just motion Perhaps
in some degree connected with the Same
cohesion which this languor Of movement
indicated, was tho other peculinty Of the
lava stream--the tenacity Of its surface. In
appearance, as we stood above H. IL was in
A ,.arfaciIu Enuid atafa. IL look All ne thouoh