190 Vesuvius. [April, 



light on ancient Hesperia ; a country on wliich tlie sun shines in 

 his strength, washed hy a transhicent sea, bordered by the most 

 picturesque shores in the world, and these crowned by villas and 

 palaces, temples and tombs, of every age and many nations — 

 worshippers of Neptune the earth-shaker, and behevers in Jan- 

 uarius, whose very image stays the heaving of the ground and 

 arrests the current of lava. Well might they wonder and be 

 ten-ified ! More than fifty times since the Christian era has the 

 mountain poured forth floods of lava and tossed up clouds of ashes ; 

 while far more frequent trembhngs of the earth have justified 

 the fable of antiquity, that Titanic forces lay oppressed but strug- 

 gling below the heavy load of the Phlegrfean hills." 



" Threatened people live long," and the inhabitants of Camjxmia 

 felix, who, amidst perpetual fertihty, have to put up with occasional 

 terrors and sometimes to witness the destruction of their homes and 

 churches by the devouring lava-streams, cannot be induced to quit 

 the dangerous but lovely spot. 



Thus we find the modern and flourishing town of Kesina 

 standing on the ashes and lavas beneath which Herculaneum lies 

 buried : and Torre del Greco even nearer to the mountain than 

 Ecsina, and three or four times, more or less, destroyed by lava- 

 streams, its total destruction being all but accomplished (but for 

 St. Januarius) by the eruption of 1861. 



It has been already mentioned that sixty-six eruptions are on 

 record since a.d. 79. These, as matter of course, have not only 

 altered the appearence of the surrounding coimtry, but have 

 frequently changed the form and height of the crater itself. 



Seen from the sea or from the Campagna, Vesuvius rises alone 

 from a broad base, and its outlines sweep upwards in an easy curve, 

 growing continually bolder towards the summit, and these, in 

 ordinary periods of tranquillity, passing over an uneven but 

 variable " dome " or " cone " 4000 feet high, to slopes on the 

 opposite face not tamely identical, but harmoniously diverse. 

 The view from Naples eastwards is in happy contrast with the 

 opposite one, the northern outline being broken by a deep hollow, 

 which is itself overlooked by a sharp angular crest 3760 feet above 

 the sea. Thus the mountain appears double : the northern crest 

 is now called the " Monte Somma," the hollow is the "■ Atrio del 

 Cavallo," and the dome-shaped summit, now the highest part of 

 all the area, is the modern " Monte Vesuvio." 



Viewed from the south-wc«t in the direction of Sorrento or 

 Capri, Vesuvius is in front, and its long continuous slope comes 

 down to Pompeii on the south, and to the sea at Torro del Greco, 

 and Eesina on the west ; while on the north it is enchcled by the 

 rugged crests of Somma. 



The histories of Somma and Vesuvius, as known to us, are 



