The Dickinson press., 1883-10-13
CLIMBING vEsUvIUs,
Interesting Account of an Ascent
OF Italy's Great volcano-A Peep
Into the Bowels of the Earth.

~
interesting Account of an Ascent
OF Italy's Great volcano-A Peep
Into h Bowels OF the Earth,
Zone day of IL stay in Naples was
tent apart for avisit to Vesuvius," writes
DR.. Plant. of Troy, N. Y, who is in
Europe to his father. "To avoid as
much as possible the excessive heat of
midday, we had given orders to be
called at 5 q. nj. Our breakfast was as
usual. A continental breakfast is "with-
out variableness OR shadow of turning
consisting of bread, coffee, and waters
of fresh butter. We have, though
come to think of it,-been two or three
times served with strained honey. At
6:l5 We started-a company of eighteen
or twenty, in a quarter as many car
riages. For three or four miles, at
least, u route lay along the crescent
shore o fthe citv, or, I believe, in any
other European city. Men, women, and
children utterly unkempt and uncared
for; bare. footed and dirty.legged; faces
unWashed and hair uncombed, ali about
the streets, walking, sitting, reclining;
of black bread and figs; sidewalks
intentionally filthy, and clouds of
dust, rising from the unsprinkled streets
that is the picture that any one will
recognize who has ever been in Naples.
Patient, %forbidding, %plodding. little dom
keys, hardly larger than a Newfound-
and dog, were going cityward, all COW
cred up with their immense panniers or
baskets of vegetables and fruits. They
are seldom driven ny reins us are our
horses, but the master or perhaps mis-
t-ess, walks behind him and holds on
by the tail. A donkey's tail is an insti-
tuition in itself. 1t is the rudder that
guides him. A little twist this way or
that way turns the whole body. An ad-
monitory pinch makes him go faster. A
spiteful wrench assures him that his
master is mad and he brays, while a
gentle squeeze, a tender pressure, tells
him that nll is we'll, and he joys con
tentedly along, willing to bear any bur-
den and endure hardships so that he
may stand approved at headquarters,
which, curiously, are at the tail end.
"Our progress was slow. The Naples
horses are poor, dispirited, and abused.
Their protrudiDg ribs show a lack of
oats, and their scanned skins an over
use of the lash. The Italians appear to
be very fond of using the whip on their
beasts.
Turning at last from the long, dole
full street, we began to climb the noun.
tain. The scent is made by wagon and
railroad. Both are good and the cost of
construction must have been enormous.
The whole business is IN charge of the
Vesuvius company, which is not the Ne
apolitan, or even Italian, but Belgian.
The wagon road is zigzag; more crooked
sand after a shower. Our progress was
something like a crabs, more lateral
than forward. Still we do go forward
and upward, though at a snails' pace.
The base of the great mountain, which is
thirty miles in circumference, is a gar
den of vines and fruit trees, figs, pome-
granates, and olives abound. Thousands
and tens of thousands Of people live in
little white cottages, nearer than we're
Pompeii and Herculaueum, hug
ging the mountain, SO to speak,
forgetful. apparently, of its pow
er to destroy. The great eruption of
a few years ago did destroy one little
village, but hardly had the ground
cooled and the smoke cleared away
when these home-loying people began
W uuiiu oI tuo Salue Sue, anu IL is now
as furnishing as before.
"Though the base of the mountain ia
lovely and rich with blossom and fruit.
we o come to a scene as desolate as
can be imagined. Great fields ofdark
brown almost black lava, cover most of
the mountain side. Its surface is not
uniform, but extremely irregular and
nodular, and it is easy to see how it has
become so. The liquid lava is a thick
substance, something like pitch, and
usually moves slowly. Any obstruction
as all uneven surface retardsthe stream:
the lower edge cools and becomes
thicker, increasing the obstruction, and
there results an accumulation--a bunch
ing up Of the lava at this point. There
are nultitudes o fthese hainmocks, with
wayy outlines on the lower sids where
the liquid has solidified.s The appear
ance Is much as we may imagine would
be that of solid black pillows. AS the
lava cools another phenomena occurs:
that is, assuring. The more recent beds
are full of unsightly gashes, running
cross-wise, wide enough and deep
enough often to take one in all over. But
lava is not very stable product; ittends
~dlsintregate by exposure, and in the OIL
der beds it has crumbled down into
something like a uniform moss. l have
somewhere read that it makes an excel
lent fertilizer, but over all these acres
Of lav%a-covered soil there is no sign of
vegetation. The scene is the very black
ness of desolation.'
THE cone is d stinct from the noun
tain in the sense that a dome is distinct
from the building which it surrounds.
1t is very steep, and something like a
third Of a mile in height. Near the base
TO the cone stands the observatoryon a
spur of the mountain. In the great erup-
ton some years ago the river of molten
lava divided just above this point, q
the observatory. Here, Palmierl, the
hero of Vesuvious, watched and signaled
the process to those below. 1t must have
been a hot place, that observatory, with
"a river of sulphurous lava almost grazing
it on either side.
Though the mountain-top is prob
ably not more than six miles from our
hotel in Naples, actual travel had
o'c.ock before we reached the 1estau-
rant and railroad station at the foot OF
the one Deciding to lunch before GO
ing further, our tables were spread under
a verandah overlooking a scene of great
extent and matchIess beauty. Below us
was the mountain, vine-clad at its base,
but with acres or acres of dark disfgur-
ing masses of lava immed lately before
us; yonder the city. with its outlying
villages; on the other side of the Bay
Sorrento, sitting between hills couered
to their SUBMITS with olive and orange
trees; in the Rocky island of Cabril,
with its wonderful blue Grotto; and far.
Their out, but within plain sight, the