The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1878-11-16

ed by semi-iuid mass rolling down the noun
TAIN stiffenng as it cooled 1t is the ideal of des-
Olation ITSELF not green thing being able to live
upon it,
From the Hermitage one can go by foot or by
mule over rough path to the base of the cone
which is reached in about an hour. This rises
1900 feet, and the ascent can only be made on
foot. AS the cone rises at an angle of about 30
degrees and consists of Stag and loose ashes which
slip back under the feet at every step, the climb is
most fatiguing. The traveller is beset with men
who offer their services and will help unless they
are resolutey and theoretically repulsed. Some
90 Just ahead and extend strap to the traveller
by which be Gan be partly pulled up, while others
| get behind and "boOst," and by these combined
means even the weakest finally reach the top.
| From the edge of the crater is a magnificent
| panorama. Before us we the country for miles
around the bay, the city and far out at sea, while
| turning around we look down into the smoking
pit, some two hundred feet below US. Clambering
down the hot, steaming sides we are at last at the
very mouth of the crater, and to all appearances
at the entrance to the internal regions. The night
before our ascent, the first display of the present
season of activity had taken place and the sky
| was lighted up with flames from the burning
| mountain. We found that there had been small
1 overflow during the night, and that some two
acres of the bottom of the inner crater had been
| covered with lava, which by the time we reached
4
we could walk with care Through the cracks in
| it we could see the red hot mass not two inches
under our feet The guides cooked eggs in these
cracks, and pressed coins in the melted lava which
| were drawn out with part of the cooled lava at
| tached to them. We could hear the melted mass
in the interior of the mountain surge from side to
| side as it boiled, and as often as once minute
| melted lava would be thrown into the air through
/ the little cone in the inner crater, and fall
/ The air full of sulphur fumes, which were al
! times so oppressive that we could hardly breath
lat masses of pure sulphur were scattered al
aus.
At the end of half an hour we W.
amber up the side of the crater, O.
avs of HE'LL and with another long look aC th'
| grand view before we scrambled down the steer
| side of the cone and return to the city. Afte
this we shall have all faith in the power of Vesu
| vius, and when we read that during an eruption
it threw stone weighing 25 tons distance of l!
miles, we shall shut our eyes and swallow tn
statement without a word of dissent.
After another visit to the Museum, and to SOM
parts of the city not mentioned in this letter, we
with regret take the train for Rome. We shall
never forget how as we rode for miles along tn
ruined arches of the aqueduct while we we're en-
tering Rome, the full moon just rising flashes
| through the arches which seemed to fly past us
| With this vision of moonlight on the Campagnia
amid the ruins of the greatest nation and city tn
world has ever seen we retire for the night and il
over the eternal City," o. r. BURCHARD.