( 188 ) [April, 



III. VESUVIUS. 



What Baden-Baden is among inland watering-places, Brighton and 

 Scarborough among marine resorts, Epsom among race-courses, 

 such is Vesuvius among volcanoes. The Spaniard ardently ex- 

 claims, "Qite no ha vista Sevilla, no ha vista maravilla;"* and 

 truly this may be said of Vesuvius. It is, j)ar excellence, the type 

 of volcanoes, both for its historical interest, and the natural beauty 

 of its surroundings. 



That it should be so will seem quite natural when we reflect, 

 that from its position, near the centre of the earliest and highest 

 civilization of Europe, its spasmodic movements were anxiously 

 watched, and more or less frequently recorded for nearly eighteen 

 hundred years ; sixty-six eruptions having been chi'onicled between 

 A.D. 79 and 1868. 



With the exception of its sister volcano Etna, tliere is no other 

 burning mountain whose history can compare for a moment in 

 interest or extent with that of Vesuvius ; indeed only a very few 

 out of the 225 recognized active volcanoes were known five hundred 

 years ago. 



Among the many scientific visitors who were attracted last 

 year to " the City of the Siren " by the activity of Vesuvius was the 

 veteran Professor Phillips, who for more than fifteen years has 

 filled the Chau" of Geology in the University of Oxford. 



Accompanied by an early geological friend and most excellent 

 antiquary, Mr. John Edward Lee, of Caerleon, Professor Phillips 

 examined Vesuvius, and the result lies before us in the shape of a 

 small and neat octavo volume,! illustrated by two maps, nine 

 plates, and thirty- five diagram woodcuts, expressive, but rough, like 

 the scoriae, tufl's, and lavas they so well depict. 



Another tourist to Vesuvius, Mr. J. Logan Lobley, F.G.S., has 

 also put on record an account of his own observations in an unpre- 

 tending little volume % of fifty-five pages, accompanied by a view, a 

 map, and a section of the mountain. 



Isolated as wo happily are in Britain from lands in which the 

 subterranean energies of our earth still manifest themselves at the 

 surface in the form of volcanic outbursts, it must not be supposed 

 that our countrymen, who have for so long a time been foremost 

 in all the other branches of cosmical science, should on this account 

 have devoted but little attention to Plutonic investigations. 



* "Who lias not socu Seville has not soon a marvel." — Spanish adaqe. 



t 'Vesuvius,' by John PhillipH, M.A., D.C.L., LL.D., F.K.S., &c., &c. Oxford : 

 Clarendon Press. Syo. ISO!*. P)). '^b^^. 



X 'Mount Vesuvius : u l)escri])tive, Historical, and Geological Account of the 

 Volcano, with a Notice of the Recent Eruption,' kc. By .J. T/igan Lobley, F.G.S. 

 8vo. 1868. London : E. Stanford. 



