26 Eruption of Vesuvius, 1867-8. 



given to that on the left. The old road to the Hermitage, small 

 portions of which we passed from time to time, was completely- 

 inundated, and a new causeway has since been made over the 

 lava. From Naples this once red and molten but now black and 

 barren mass might almost be mistaken for copse, but it was like 

 anything rather than green trees when we viewed it close. Its 

 real colour was a deep rich umber, and the hard ropy surface 

 abounded in chinks and caverns and petrified bubbles, not yet 

 quite cold, for though it had been cooling for nearly ten years, 

 puffs of steam still rose here and there, and the heat was quite 

 sufBcieut to enforce a quick withdrawal of the hands we inserted 

 into the holes and crannies. 



And now the sight above us was grand beyond description. 

 For the twin streams of lava, as we got nearer to them, seemed no 

 longer to fall, but to rise out of the blackness of the night like two 

 giant arms of fire, diverging from one trunk and clasping hands 

 again as they disappeared two thousand feet higher up under the 

 scornful smoke of the crater. Now, too, we heard plainly the roar 

 of its wrath, and our nostrils caught the fumes of sulphur with 

 which the whole atmosphere was charged. 



The Hermitage was reached at last by a great many zizags, and 

 here we were on a level with, or even slightly above the extreme 

 limit of the new lava, which was slowly trickling down the gully 

 to our right. A short walk along the mountain ridge, during which 

 the wind buffeted us fiercely ; then a steep descent into the foss, 

 and we stepped at once on to the still smoking heaps of loose 

 broken lava or scoriae, which are the deposit of the present erup- 

 tion. A rough scramble over ridge and furrow, which was rather 

 exciting until one's boots got used to the red hot cinders one 

 dislodged; a stiff clamber up the final ridge of stones, and we 

 found ourselves looking down upon a river of liquid fire, some 

 three yards broad, close beneath us; which seemed in some 

 unaccountable way to be making for itself banks or walls of hot 

 scoriae as it flowed onwards. 



To descend from our comparatively safe eminence to the edge 

 of the current was to be scorched almost to a cinder oneself, for 

 the heat was tremendous : but we could watch it from where we 

 were, sluggishly tumbling over itself, as if each portion of lava, 

 on coming to the front, was afraid to take the lead, and stood still 

 while another portion was shot over its head. It was harder now to 

 distinguish the two flaming arms that were so obvious before, for 

 the whole mountain side seemed alive with broken cascades of fire, 

 and in places the lava appeared to issue fresh from some lesser 

 vent to swell the main stream. But there was more to see and 

 grander, and I must take my audience higher than the Fosso della 



