Year: 1869

~ u p


ssa From the Pail Mall Gazette.l


Often as Vesuvius has been describ-
ed, there is one set of impressions
which are perhaps the most generally
interesting of all, but which, from the
nature of the case, cannot SO frequent
Aly be recorded. 2 7 refer to the lmpres-
sions of one who has stood upon the
lip of the, crater and looked down
while the eruption is actually in pro-
gFess. 1t is not always that view of
such scene can be obtained. 1t was
alta time when crash was following
crash in manner that was quite suf-
& fciently terrible, and when all the suf-
locating steamsi and yapors were be-
ing driven to one side of the mountain
by strong wind, that we were able to
5. go up from the windward side, stand
upon the lip of the crater, look down
into the roaring abyss, and see what
the, eruption of a volcano looks like
on the spot.
.3a, That is, in truth, the only way of
an idea Of what repository
ha of horrors a volcano is. Without
such . visit, Vesuvius is often little
disappointing. It is nothing but a
fine mountain, just like any other,
says Mendelssohn. You may be lit
tie disappointed as you see Vesuvius
from below. But you have only to
mount to the summit when an erup-
ton of any magnitude is in progress
to find yourself in the presence of ap-
palling phenofnela bothlof sight and
sound. Choose the last few hours of
daylight for your ascent, and then, as
d the darkness closes round and the
os world below becomes hidden from
% @ your view, you stand at the crater in
. the presence of a scene for which no
&c language can be very extravagant.-
For experienced mountaineers the eff
.,fortirequired for the ascent is nothing
remarkable, but for ordinary people il
is 1aborious enough. ~,


ii Is You arrive at the edge of the era
ter, and there you behold scene full
i of awe and majesty. The suddennes'
with which you come upon it is quite
startling. Going up you neither SET
nor hear anything. One moment yor
are clambering up the side of the cone
amid profound silence; the next mo.
ment, as Your head arises above th'
crater lip, You encounter "a roar and ;
blaze which make you shrink back
little. This surprise is occasioned,


suppose, by the formation of the era
ter. 1t is a huge bowl which come
up to quite a sharp lip, about half


mile, in diameter; sand ONE hundre,
yards in depth, Towards the bottom
of this bowl, on the opposite side t
where we stood, was great hole, fron
which all the projectiles of the erup
ton were shot; the surface of tn
bowl being composed of Jumps of la
va, stones and cinders !, all of ther
smeared with sulphur, precisely lik
those upon which we were standing
AS you mount the cone there is be
tween yeu and the gulf an enormou
wall, which dulls everything alike
for eye and ear. Even while on tn
sleeps of the cone itself you might b
unaware that the mountain was di
turbed. But q single step seems a


most enough to transfer you from th
most deathlike stiffness to the grant


est exhibition of force it is possible
conceive, instead of the monotonor


dull black of CONCEALED lava on IL


lower levels, you have the deep brio
red of stones that have been under ii
action of fire, the brightest vermilio


and every imaginable shade of orans


and yellow that sulphur deposits a


capable of taking. The ground is he
too; SO hot, indeed, that you cam


keep your foot onthe same spot f


many seconds together. Between Il


chinks Of the stones you can see thai
few inches below tho surface it is q


tually red hot. You thrust in the Ell


of your stick for a moment and y


pull it out charred. Over all the fi


- q 1.r,