The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1877-02-22
How Pompeii Was Destroyed.

AS illustrating one phase of Roman
life in the first century of our era, moth
ing is so significant as the narrative OF
the younger Pliny. The sublime indif-
ference of the Roman youth to the mar
velous phenomenon which his uncle,
the naturalist, set out from Misenum to
observe, and the ignorance on the part
of the latter of the ROxious gases which
caused his death, stand in marked con-
trast with the careful observations of
volcanic phenomena made by lady OF
Boston, of no special scientific tastes
or training, who CHANGED to be an eye
witness of the eruption of Vesuvius in
1872, an eruption whose various phases
have thrown much new light upon the
way in which Pompeii was overwhelm-
ed. The covering of ashes and volcan-
ic or lava-mud under which the ancient
city was buried is estimated by Over
beck at from seven to eight meters
(twenty- three or twenty-six and half
feet) in depth. The lower half of this
thick stratum consists of gray ashes,
mixed with Eapittt-that is, the cOarser
particles of the disiItegrated lava.
These IapilIi vary in size from that OF
an ordinary pea to the thickness of
foot in diameter. Above this layer OF
the Edpiui we come to the lava-mud
tiara CarosG of the Italians). This
is a thick paste of ashes and pozzetGnG,
formed by the action of powerful
masses of water, the heavy torrents
caused by the rapidly condensing va
por. This condensation, taking place
in an atmosphere saturated with fine
volcanic dust, resulted in what might
be called showers of mud. 1t well
known that streams of lava-mud flowed
directly into Herculaneum and covered
that city with a thick coating, which
was afterwards overlaid by several
strata of lava from the subsequent erup
lions of Vesuvius. But no such freshets
of the Iava-mud inundated Pompeii,
situated as il was on q promontory
formed of the hardened lava of prehis'
torie times. The pasty substance which
fell upon the already deep layer OF ashes
and lapiIH was mixed, as it were, in the
air. To this peculiar formation we owe
the wonderful molds which have been
made not only of dead bodies but also
of many movable articles over which
the lava mud had flowed. A most In
teresting and valuable record OF the
flight from the doomed city might have
been read in the affecting story of these
impressions made in the lava paste hac
the simple device hit upon by Signol
Fiorelli, in 1868, been earlier discover
ed. The method of utilizing the i'm
preston which the lava-mud has so per
fectly retained, is merely to poul
into the vacant space, from which al
the parts of the body but the skeleton
have crumbled away, liquid plaster
by means of which perfect cast o
the figure is obtained. The fact de
rived from a study of the very few
bodies which have been found since thi
method of preserving their form wa
first employed are of great importance
from an archaeological point of view
while the silent testimony which is thu
given as to the way in which these vic
tins of the great eruption met thei
r death is more touching than the mos
r pathetic romance ever written. Othe
| facts connected with the peculiar cover
? ing under which the buried city wa
: found are of interest, as showing ths
the agency of fire was wholly abser