392 Eniption of Mount Vesuvius. 



all the left side of the crater, and exhibited a spectacle at once 

 picturesque and awful. 



October 22. — Mount Vesuvius showed signs, yesterday 

 evening, of an approaching eruption, and to-day it has broken 

 out. The mountain is all on fire; the continued oscillations 

 Avhich are felt, indicate that part of the crater is fallen in. The 

 branches of lava ai'e numerous; but we cannot distinguish 

 their rapid course, on account of the thick smoke, but their 

 direction seems to follow the ancient track. Several parties of 

 foreigners have determined to go this night to the spot, to ob- 

 serve more closely the effect and jirogress of the lava. The ex- 

 plosions are frequent; and if the land breeze siiould blow again 

 to-night, we shall have a shower of ashes similar to that which 

 we had in 1808. 



October 23. — The eruption of Vesuvius is terrible. The 

 torrent of lava which flows towards Resina has already covered 

 100 acres of ground. The showers of ashes darken the sky, 

 and fall even in the streets of the capital. The stones which 

 have fallen at Boscotre Casa have accumulated to the height of 

 five palms. — Gazetta di Napoli. 



Naples, f Further Particulars,) Oct. 20, 183£. 



Prayers were this day put up in the church of St. Janii- 

 arius, for the preservation of this city from the danger with 

 which it was threatened, by one of the most dreadful eruptions 

 of Vesuvius that has occurred within the memory of man. The 

 thanksgiving will continue for three days : the assemblage was 

 immense. The columns of fire, stones, and ashes, which the 

 volcano has vomited forth for many days past, have been of 

 less magnitude to-day, and there is every prospect of a speedy 

 termination of this terrible phenomenon. We have collected 

 the following particulars respecting the progi'ess of the lava: — 

 At first it flowed in a stream of the breadth of half a mile, in 

 a direction west from the mountain; and after destroying a 

 great extent of ground, it stopped at a place called Monte. A 

 second body of lava proceeded fi'om the same crater, and at 

 the same time as the one already mentioned, and covered the 

 old lavas on the side of Boscotre Casa, without doing any 

 mischief. A third stream issued from a new crater which the 

 eruption had opened, and stopped near the first. And, finally, 

 a fourth stream burst from the old crater called Vulcan's 

 Mouth, and took the direction of La Torre. It has been re- 

 marked of this eruption, that the matter thrown from the vol- 

 cano, taken in a mass, far exceeds the lava in quantity. So 

 numerous were the stones cast forth from the volcano, that 

 they filled the Consular road from Resina to the tower of An- 

 nunziata, and blocked up the passage. The police, the mem- 

 bers 



