New-York tribune., 1904-10-02

again and again.
| All day steam and smoky vapOr ascend into
/ an umbrella shaped cloud over the volcanoes
head At night sparks rise. and alternately the
| clouds lighted up by the fire in the depths
| Of the crater. flames shoot into the air
| Neapotans have become so accustomed to the
sight and to the occasional rumbles from the
bowels Of the great mountain that they pay
attention to them. When the volcano is grum-
bling. or after there has been of the periodic
outbursts OF dust and cinders. persons are not
| allowed go up the mountain. long railway
] journey takes the climber out from Naples
/ through endless series Of ancient villas and
vegetable farming towns. teeming with vege-
| tatiOn. with palms. expresses. rose gardens
! olive groves and vineyards The Pompeii sta
| ton reached. the tourist has to make a choics
from a hundred yelling guides and cabmen and
is carried through the lively village Of modern
POmpeiI made up Of hotels and wine shops prin-
| ctpaLy. and under avenue OF plane trees to
| the entrance to the ruins Of ancient POmpeh-
| At the end Of the railroad begins the foot as
| cent OF the volcano. Fields Of crumbIing black
/ lava stretch far up to the top twisted and fur
| rOwed as IL cooled after pouring out from the
| assures above. II the walking is hard the air
| Is worse A wind may any tiTneN bring down the
volcanoes side blast Of LlgseOus vapOr. Toll
| ing to the top the climber finally gets where he
| can gaze into the crater. Often this Is quiet.
and nothing but a yawning hole AS often it
| a seething caldron OF fire and boiling masses
| OF rock Flames shoot up from the edges. i'm
| menSe columns OF steam rise with a hiss. the
/ ground below trembles reels and seems about 10
tOtter into the abyss, the roaring from the in
terror OF the mountain deafens. suIphurou5
smoke blinds and stiles At night the expe-
| rtence Is awful than In the day One can
not see his netghbor the expedition. His
voice is lost in the horrible belching and roaring
from the bowels Of the earth A uisstep OF a
! momentary loss OF the guide, and it is easy
/ thing to roll into the fiery pit. Most people
| take the longest glimpse their breath viii allow
them and then hurry back down the lava slope
| to purer air again The record Of deaths by
sufocation and accident VesuviUs is 4 large
one.
When the first writers began to mention
Vesuvius they spoke OF the lava character OF
the soil around the volcano and 20 the many
signs that it had been burned in ancient times"
But there is no recorded disturbance Of the
crater earlier than Christian times In A D .
came the historic bursting OF the mountain and
the overwhelming OF Herculaneum and PompeiL
At that time it not suspected that Vesuvius
would DO such Unheard OF thing. Gardens
and vineyards ran up to the very top OF the
volcano. and villages and private villas were
scattered about the slopes and base
Vesuvius rested for 124 years until in the
Another came in the year 472. and was so ire
mendous that ashes were carried over the whole
Of Europe and even to Asia and Africa Tho
fourth eruption came in 1896 In 1851 an erup-
ton was accompanied by tremendous streams ot
lava and torrents of boiling water In 1913
modern scientific men for the first time studied
the phenomenon In the convuIsiOn OF 1874 the
town Of Tore del Greco was destroyed In this
eruption great hole opened in the side OF the
volcano the base, which filed up with
molten lava One stream OF the lava from
this explosion was estimated as containing more
than As 100000 cubic feet
In 1s22 the whole top Of vesuvtus was blown
or and chlsm about three miles In circum-
ference and probably more than two thousand
feet deep was formed.
In 1850 1853 and 1858 streams OF lava poured
out OF the volcano and in April. 1872. came an
and in 1891 came more eruptions. In 1897 came
the eruption photograph OF which was taken
by Brog Of Florence. Huge stones were thrown
up to tremendous heights at that time. and
clouds OF steam smoke and ashes escaped from
the crater for days.
An interesting feature about these erUptions iS
the heat of the elected lava One stream being
tested gave 4 reading Of I DOS degrees Fahren-
heit. Another stream fused silver the melting
point of which is 1S7O degrees on third
test the lava melted copper. thus showing
heat Of not less than 2.2O4 degrees.
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