Year: 1871

The Boston Journal reprints the follow
ing very interesting account of a night
passed on Mount Vesuvius during an erup-
tion, from the Naples and FlOrence o.
eruer of April Is:


This was, by far, the most thrilling
and eventful night of my life My interest
in the volcano had been raised to enthusi-
asm by the outbreak of its torrent of lava
on the evening of the 81 instant, against
the opinion of experienced residents.
During late walk on that magnificent
road, the Corso Vittoria Emanuele, which
overlooks the finest city and bay and the
most charming scenery / ever beheld,
heard a succession of violent explosions
from the crater, the distance being about
twelve miles. Similar reports were fire.
quent on the morning of the 9th, and in
the afternoon party of us-among whom
were Mr. w. w. Griscom. q sound scholar
and scientist from Philadelphia, and his
pupil, Master d. G. Stanton, of Boston,
now a resident of London = started for the
scene. To omit the amusing incidents of
the journey, we reached the stream oflava
before sunset, and the summit before
crater, at the foot of the new cone,
which, having no accumulation of
elected matter, ie, no cone of stone
and ashes, shows clearly how it was first
formed. A thick bed of solid rock seems
TO have been rent by the pent-up forces
beneath, and forced upward into a vertical
position, like the Jaws of a monster, broad
at the base and tapeIing at the top. Three
or four of these vast rocks form the Chin
hey, through which pour volumes of steam
and smoke, roaring flames and lava, with
great violence, as if from a mighty con-
tiagration under intense pressure below.
nr1r ~ .r.L Lo-. a. a q
night drew on, but / was not satisfied,
and, being on the ground, 1 resolved to
stay till morning; and was well repaid
for my trouble and privation- 1t is i'm
possible to do justice to such a subject in
brief article. There are really three
separate throats, so to speak, from the
depths below, quite distinct in their mode
of action. Two are within the main
crater at the summit, and on line with
the new one above named, which is near
the north base of the great summit, or
apex cone, and whose action / have
described. The middle throat or register
is the only one that was violent in its
action. and through the night, at longer or
shorter intervals, it was terrific. After
brief periods of rest it broke
forth again, with tremendous Explosion,
as sudden and intense as that of the
heaviest cannon, but many, many times
vaster and grander, as if a magazine of
powder or nitro o-glycerine had suddenly
been ignited far down in the deep bowels
of the earth Sometimes one, oftener
several reports, came in quick succession
Sometimes the first was loudest, but often
the second and third reports followed with
increasing rapidity and violence and with
much greater intensity than the first. At
all the explosions of this opening immense
volleys of glowing stones and Ted-hot Gin
ders were thrown to the height of from
one to two hundred feet, spreading into
magnificent bouquets of great brilliancy,
many of these stones, some of large size,
falling outside the crater, and rolling down
the cone in glowing fragment to the base.


Sometimes the explosions were preceded
by subterranean rumblings far down in
the deep caverns of the mountain, accom-
panied by trembling of the solid frame
to its very base.


"The action of the third spout or regis
ter was wholly different from the other
two. There was no violent explosion, as
of pent-up power, as in the case of that
Just described, though, like that, its de-
livery was fitful; blowing out at intervals,
and never uniform, continuous and unex-
plosive, like the first described new crater
outside of the cone, whose flow was CO.
pious compressed volume of smoke and
flame, as from a well-fed furnace, and with
no noise, except that of the constant roaring
of the flame. The third register made a
great blowing noise, like an immense fuse,
and very much like the noise of an as
cending rocket of immense proportions:
1t threw out volumes of black smoke and
greater bouquets of glowing cinders, but
with much less violence than its compan-
ion, as if the opening were much larger
so much larger in proportion to its dis
charge as to divest it of all explosive vio-
nearly spent crater. There are many other
very interesting topics that should be no.
ticed in this connection, but have al
ready intruded too far, both on your space
ami the patience of your readers.


Respectfully, +. L. CAPEN."