The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-09-12
WHITE,
Heals n


IL WM#
We passed over thescraters Of those
tresh lava streams T1ere ere Eve
nouths, yellow with sulphur. and the
hillcwy election stands on their lips
Just as they were when they spit them
forth so Gar. II seems that such iiiipg
must needs be treacherous, but I ven
ture on them and wonder how for it is
10 the source from which they spit Gre
a few weeks before.
The crater at the summit is two OF
three hundred feet higher, and is the
point from which nearly always smoke
issues and much Of the time stones
and lava are thrown up. The configur-
alton Of the mountain as seen from the
Bay Of Naples, where I examined it,
shows that the present crater is eside
the western side-of q very much
larger crater of a spent volcano. On
the side toward Naples, the rim of the
original volcano, which was active long
before historical times, was burned
through or melted down, and piled up
on the mountain slope below. The
whole history Of the procedure is plainly
written out In the landscape, and the
wonder is that nothing is said about it,
so far as I know.
On the day we went mp Yesuvius
was uncommonly active. We APP
preached it from tho leeward side, an9
long before We reached the top we heed
the laundering, kissing roar Of the cup
tions, saw the ashes falling about Us.
the stones shooting up hundreds OF feet
in the air and falling in showers, and
smelt the heavy frmes Of sdlphurous
gas. Some of thA company when we
came to the region where smoke was
issuing from the corners of the rocks
below us, where we covfd look down
through the Handicapped chimneys
whence the scorching gas was coming
and coIoring the rocks arounda bright
yellow, decided they would 80 no fur
Their. But I had come to see the volcat
no, and pushed on. The guide followed
me some hundreds OF feet, and then he
stopped and called on me TO come back.
/ kept on, and by going round to the
windward side I was able to reach the
rim ofthe caater. The stones were shot
up into the air mostly vertically, but
some Of them fell around me. / was
careful after each eruption, which
occurred at intervals OF two or
three minutes, to watch the stones,
prepared 10 dodge them If any
should come down in my direction.
Even from this position / could moi
look down upon the boiling surface, but
r could hear the terrible splashing and
surging and roaring, and could see the
red-hDt masses Of lava, 1--WE or six feet
long and q foot wide or so, thrown up
like bloody masses Of flesh, torn and
dripping. These after going up thirty
or forty feet in the air, turn black, sep-
arate into fragments, and come down as
stones and ashes. 1t was the widest
and most horrid sight speak Of
the appearance, not the fact ever
saw-Pluto's butcher shop, where he,
amid all the Wild music and outcries Of
the lower world, was butchering his VIC
Tins and amusing himself by throwing
the fragments dripping in their gore into
the air. This was the first suggestion
the suggestion Of sense. This soon gave
| place to q current Of reflection, wonder
and gratitude. / stood there amazed
before the wonderous Power that had
sobered and tanned the Wild forces Of
our planet. / remembered that once
gigantic steeds Of FIRE ragged over tha
whole earth snoring and fighting,
paving at the SUI and kicking their
heels In the face Of the moon-and now
He had subdued and trained and stalled
them, and now we must come here To
see only the frisking Of the taii.-Let-
ters from Naples.