Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1883-02-24
BURIED CITIES.
A Railroad Trains Progress Barred by Ashes
from Volcano.

n naliT0au 1ralus TTOSTess DarTou py Aeues
from Volcano.
HOW HERCULANEUM AND POMPEII
WERE DESTROYED.
A Atorrist writing from the vicinity OF
Mount Vesuvius describes a demon
stration which he met in that region
of the way the cities of Herculaneum
and Pompeii were destroyed. He
was proceeding by railway from
Tore Annunziata to Tore del Greco,
and had gone but short distance
when the locomotive was suddenly
brought to standstill by al immense
quantity of volcanic ashes and pun
ice stone, packed over the railway
track to the height of many feet. 1t
had been hurled there by the rushing
torrents that were literally sweeping
the slopes of Vesuvius. There was
no getting through, and it was not
until after six hours that, with force
of hundreds of men, any train was
able to pass. It was by similar
storm that the burial of the famous
Roman cities were effected. First
there was fail of pumice-stone and
fine ashes; and Immediately succeed
ing came a drenching flood forming
torrents of fine ashes, like liquid
mud paste This was hurled like
rushing rivers not only upon Hercu
laneum, Pompeii and Oplonto, but
upon every side of Vesuvius. This
mud food, now, of course, dry and
compact, can even be seen on the
plain between Pompeii and Stabie,
the modern Castellamare. Hercula
neum was situated on the sea, and
nearer the new crater formed by the
Vesuvian convulsion of 79 A. d., and
the slopes of the mountain above
Herculaneum, sleeper than elsewhere,
received q far greater quantity OF the
torrents of fine mud ashes than
Pompeii, which, in a direct line, is
five miles away from the present cone,
which occupies substantially the same
position as that of the cone shot up
in that memorable night described
by the younger Pliny. Beside, the
inclination of the mountain toward
Pompeii is very gradual for nearly
half the dis ance, so that the inter
ment by pumice. stone, and afterward
by the mudfood, was not nearly SO
deep as that Of her sister city. The
pumice- stone and the coating of
liquid mud (Which latter, perhaps,
dried almost as rapidly as liquid
plaster of Paris) covered Hercula
neum to the depth of sixty feet, while
Pompeii was only buried beneath
twenty four feet. In the year 1896
A. d., lava, for the first time ia the
records of man, burst forth from We
suvius. OF course, in prehistoric
times, it had rolled down again and
again from the mountain to the sea.
Pompeii itself, built before the foun-
dation of Rome, was constructed on
an old lava bed just on the edge of
the plains of the Sorno. Then in
1896 A. ID. Herculaneum, buried for
nearly 1000 years beneath the layers
of pumice stone and dried, compacted
fine ashes (the once liquid mud) re-
ceived the first layer OF lava, and in
the centuries up to the discovery
Q6S4), perhaps as many as six erup-
tions poured their millions of tons
over the spot where the devoted city
lay. / mentioned six lava deposits
because Tore del Greco, with Resini,
built over the site Of Herculaneum,
has been destroyed nine times by We
suvius since the eruption OF 70, thus
covering Herculaneum to the depth
OF 120 feet from the original level.
The pumice- stone and the dried mud
| II use unscientific terms), being non
conductors, preserved the statues OF
bronze and marble, the frescoes, the
papyri, and even such perishable arti-
cles as honey. If lava, in the ordi-
nary sense of the word, had over
whelmed Herculaneum, nothing
would have remained Of the city GOV.
cred in 79. Hence can be seen how
absurd is the story told by ignorant
guides and by many a letter writer,
and am sorry to say, in many books,
that Herculaneum was destroyed by
lava.
am informed that the destruction
# property on Vesuvius is often very
great at the present time. on account
Of pumice stone and ashes carried
violently and in torrents down the
mountain side. A food of ashes and
water commingled descended on San
Sebastiano during the eruption of
1922, and no less than seven men
were ingulfed in this fluid mud, and
lost their lives in a moment, the mate
rial inclosing the bodies just as it
did those of the unfortunate Pompeii-
ans who perished 1900 years ago.
Statistics have been made proving
that one-sixth Of the regular army Of