ISCHIA AND ITS EARTHQUAKES. 27 



fields and destroyed a great number of Roman buildings. These two 

 mountains of volcanic erection, formed under similar conditions, at two 

 distinct epochs corresponding in each case with a period of repose in 

 Vesuvius, are distinguished by their regular form, which may be com- 

 pared with that of the classic volcanoes of the chain of the puys of 

 Auvergne. Both, terminating in a vast crater, have emitted, like the 

 volcanoes of Auvergne, only a single flow of lava, which seems to have 

 exhausted all their energy. A long period of repose followed. Dur- 

 ing more than a century " Ischia the Joyous," as it was called, rested 

 in perfect tranquillity. The pleasure-loving Romans made of it the 

 most enchanting resort in the world ; all their magnates had villas 



there. 



It is to be remarked that this period of repose was correspondent 

 with a resumption of activity on Vesuvius. The first symptom of an 

 awakening of energy in that volcano was an earthquake, which in the 

 year 68 occasioned considerable damage in the neighboring towns. 

 We know well how, eleven years later, in 79, the hitherto peaceful 

 mountain, covered at the time with rich plantations and forests nearly 

 to its crater, revealed by a sudden explosion the terrible force that 

 was sleeping in its depths. La Somma, reduced to powder, was pro- 

 jected into the air ; then a column of thick smoke was seen to rise 

 vertically from the summit of the mountain, and to spread horizontally, 

 covering the country under its immense shadows. The sun was ob- 

 scured even as far as to Rome, and it was believed that the " great 

 night of the earth " was about to begin. When light was restored, 

 the dismantled mountain had changed its form ; the luxuriant forests 

 that had covered it had disappeared, and so had the populous cities of 

 Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabise, buried, with their inhabitants, 

 under ashes and volcanic debris. From this time, Vesuvius does not 

 appear to have emitted any eruption of lava for several hundred 

 years ; and this period of quiet at that center seems to have been 

 marked at Ischia by a resumption of the fires of Epomeo, which had 

 enjoyed so long a rest that large forests had grown up to the very 

 edge of its crater. In 1302, after the island had been shaken with a 

 succession of earthquakes during the previous year, the lava gushed 

 out by a new opening near the city of Ischia, and in less than four 

 hours reached the sea, having destroyed everything in its passage as 

 if it had been a torrent of fire. The city was terribly afflicted ; large 

 houses and numerous villas were buried, with their inhabitants. The 

 rough surface of this lava stream has resisted all weathering, and still 

 refuses to bear any vegetation. The new eruptive phase was of long 

 duration, and it is remarked that while it continued Vesuvius was 

 quiet. The alternations between the eruptive movements of lava in 

 the two volcanic centers find a natural explanation in the facts that 

 they are both on the same line of fracture, and a subterranean com- 

 munication probably exists between them. 



