140 Mr. G. P. Scrope on the Formation of Craters, 
a crater of great size bored through its axis. Later eruptions, 
especially that of 1813, not merely filled up this vast cavity with 
their products, but once more raised the height of the cone by 
Fig. 2.—Outline-sketch of Vesuvius as it appeared in October 1767 ; with 
dotted outlines of its form in July and in May of the same year. 
some hundred fect. When I first saw it in 1819 the top formed 
a rudely convex platform, rising towards the south, where was 
its highest point. Several small cones and craters of eruption 
were in quiet activity upon this plain, and streams of lava trickled 
from them down the outer slopes of the cone. So things went 
on until October 1822, when the entire heart of the cone was 
again thrown out by the formidable explosions I have so often 
referred to, and a vast crater was opened through it; while the 
cone itself was found to have lost several hundred feet from its 
top. In fact nothing but an outer shell of it was left (fig. 3). 
Eruptions, however, soon recommenced. In 1826-7 a small 
cone was formed at the bottom of the crater, and, continuing in 
activity, had reached a height which rendered it visible from 
Naples in 1829, when of course it must have nearly filled up the 
erater. In 1830 it was 200 feet higher than the erater’s rim; 
and in 1831 this cavity was completely filled, and the lava- 
streams began to flow over it down the outer cone. In the 
winter of that year a violent eruption once more emptied the 
bowels of the mountain, and left a new crater, which soon began 
to fill again from ejections upon its floor; and by the month of 
August 1834 this crater had been in its turn obliterated, and 
lava overflowed its edge towards Ottaiano. In 1839 the cone 
was again cleared out, and a new crater appeared in the shape of 
a vast funnel, accessible to its bottom, which for a few years then 
remained in a tranquil state. In 1841, however, a small cone 
began to form within it, and increased so rapidly, that in 1845 
it was visible from Naples above the brim of the crater, which 
