126 AN ASCENT OF VESUVIUS. 



of the mountain. The fire from the crater was of a rich cherry co- 

 lour, with occasional tints of yellow, pink, and vermilion. The noise 

 of the mountain was the most terrific part of the whole phenomenon. 

 It was a continued roaring or explosion, deep, rather than loud. You 

 were conscious that it took place under ground, and not at the mouth 

 of the crater. It might be felt with the feet as well as heard with 

 the ears, and at each discharge the windows of every house near 

 where I was standing ih Santa Lucia might be heard to rattle. The 

 Neapolitan women and children of the lower orders were in a pitia- 

 ble consternation. Many of them brought the crucifix in a sort of 

 little procession before their houses, and turning it towards the red 

 glare, as a sort of protection from any threatened danger, began 

 chaunting the rosary. The English who were in Naples engaged 

 every hackney coach that was to be met with, and drove off to the 

 foot of the mountain. When all was over, they might be heard 

 rumbling back into the town one by one, through the empty streets, 

 at one, two, or three o'clock in the morning. 



The next day Vesuvius looked as calm and as quiet as if he had 

 done nothing extraordinary the preceding evening. So he has re- 

 mained ever since ; and hardly a vapour can be seen to hang over 

 his summit, or more smoke to issue than would be caused by the 

 pipes of a party of German students. How long it will remain so 

 * f chi sa ?" " who knows ?" as the Italians say, with a careless sort 

 of shrug. 



Those who have ascended to the crater 'since the 1st of April say 

 that its appearance is very much altered. They report that the hemis- 

 pherical bowl is either filled up or crusted over, so as to become an 

 even plain, level with the lip of the crater. The single mouth which 

 discharged fire and smoke has disappeared, and the vapour now 

 rises from several rents and cracks which are irregularly scattered 

 over the surface of the crust. Thus we have one of those changes in 

 the volcano which have been going on ever since there has been a 

 history to record them. Mankind have been sufficiently puzzled 

 to explain their cause, continuation, and result, make a thousand 

 guesses, and successively abandon them. It seems now to be a fa- 

 vourite opinion that, when the mountain has to a certain degree hol- 

 lowed itself out by these repeated eruptions, it will fall in, and then 

 become part of the Bay of Naples ; but the vast period of time during 

 which these eruptions have succeeded each other proves that both the 

 fire and the materials it acts upon must be too deep-seated to inter- 

 fere much with the outer crust of the earth, and consequently that 

 so frightful an hypothesis has but little foundation. The author of 

 these sketches does not venture to offer an opinion on the subject 

 (his pretensions are only to describe faithfully the objects that fell 

 under his observation), but he earnestly hopes that it may please Pro- 

 vidence either to avert a calamity that would destroy the lives of 

 thousands, or at least, as in many former h stances, to give such timely 

 warning that none but the heedless and self-willed need neglect the 

 means of escape. 



The constant view of Vesuvius has a perceptible effect upon the 



