Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1906-06-15
THE HISTORY
OF VESUVIUS
IT'S RECORD IN THE PAST AND
ITS PRESENT PERFORM
ANCE.

Because of its constantly recurring
outbursts. Vesuvius has been more
carefully watched than perhaps any
other of the worlds volcanoes. Deli !
cate instruments have been devised
TO foretell an eruption. and 1t is no
doubt due to these that the crater :
present activity has cost only hundreds
and not thousands OF lives. And yet
We can no more account for the SUM
Der of Vesuvius than for its violent
outbursts. Even constant observation
has not always enabled science to fore
cast the occurrence of the upheavals
During the graphic eruption of 1872,
Prof. Palmieris delicate seismoSraph- |
ic instruments at the Monte di Somma
observatory gave not even the slightest
indication of what was to come; and
so while we are familiar with the rec
ord of the past, that Of the future is
often yelled.
Although there We're vague legends
among the ancents concerning the
fiery nature of the mountain it was not
until the year 10 that the true char
acter of the great solitary cone ris-
ing from the plain of Campania was
suspected, Notwithstanding that six
teen years previous, in GO, and repeat
eddy thereafter, severe earthquakes
partially destroyed the cities in the Vi
entity of the Bay of Naples. From the
seographer Strabo We learn that .he
slopes of Vesllvius We're at that time
covered with fertile meadows, though
the summit, which was fiat and appar-
emily without traces of a crater was
sterile and showed indications of a
fiery origin. Almost without warning
on August "a, 10. an enormous cloud
of black vapOr rose from the summit
accompanied by the explosion which
shattered the top and marked the be-
ginning of the great historic eruption
so ably described in the letters writ.
ten to Tacitus by Pliny the younger,
nephew of the famous Roman admiral
tenng to the relief of the inhabitants
of Pompeii. Herculaneum and Stabiae
with the fleet under his command
Pompeii was overwhelmed and buried
10 depth of many feet by terrific
rain of volcanic ashes. We can only
estimate the number of the inhabitants
who persisted but the mode OF death
is indelibly recorded in the molds OF
bodies found in the ashes of the dead
city by the eXcavators of today. Her
culaneum. on the other hand, was de
stroyed, not by great flow of lava
as is commonly believed, but by tor
rents of boiling mud formed in the all
by the condensation of great masses OF
vapor laden with lapilli or scoriae, Is
the volcanic sand or ashes are known
The first eruption definitely record
ed after this was described by Dior
Cassius. 1t occurred in 2O3, and az
pears TO have been one of eXtraord
nary violence. In 412 the mountain
burst forth again in a terrible upheaN
of ashes We're carried as far as Coz
stantinople. In the period between I'll
first outburst and the year 1900 min
eruptions of greater or less intensit
were recorded, while between 1900 an
1851 Vesuvius was entirely quiescen
So deep was the mountains slumbe
during this time that it again BEGAN
covered with vegetation and Gait
peacefully grazed in the crater. An
strangely enough. during this peric
Etna labored ceaselessly. and Mont
Nuova was formed by an eruption nee
PozZuoli The lull was broken by
terrific outburst the first of which W
have a detailed account, on Decemb'
16, 1881. when huge clouds of vapo
violent earthquakes, showers of ash'
and rocks. and no less than seven gre
streams of lava overwhelmed five
the neighborins towns with loss
thousands of lives, and even spret
terror in Naples itself. This IRENE
dous CONFUSION inscribed its memo
lalS on me Slopes OF the mountain
obliterated estates and ruined village
II appears that Vesuvius did not q
sumo it's present form until near Il
end of the seventeenth century,
Sorrentino describes an eruption
1886, during which there arose "a ne
mountain within and higher than L
old one and visible from Naples" TIL
Somma is really the original Vesuvi,
and that the present cone is little mo
than Two centuries old. From May
August. 1907, continuous series
eruptions involving the loss OF Sol
three thousand lives again devast'