132 



EARTH FEATURES AND THEIR MEANING 



When the heavy curtain of ash, which now for a number of 

 succeeding days overhung all the circum-Vesuvian country, began 



FIG. 133. The ash curtain which had overhung Vesuvius lifting and disclosing 

 the outlines of the mountain on April 10, 1911 (after De Lorenzo). 



to lift (Fig. 133), it was seen that the summit of the cone had been 

 truncated an average of some 500 feet (Fig. 134). All the slopes 

 and much of the surrounding country had the aspect of being 



buried beneath a cocoa- 

 colored snow of a depth 

 to the northeastward of 

 several feet, where it had 

 drifted into all the hollow 

 ways so as almost to 

 efface them (Fig. 135). 

 More than thrice as 

 heavy as water, the weak 

 roof timbers of the houses 

 at the base of the moun- 

 tain gave way beneath 



FIG. 134. The central cone of Vesuvius as it 

 appeared after the eruption of 1906, but with 

 the earlier profile indicated. The truncation 

 represents a lowering of the summit by some 

 five hundred feet, with corresponding increase in 

 the diameter of the crater (after Johnston- 

 La vis). 



the added load upon 

 them, thus making many 

 victims. Inasmuch, how- 

 ever, as the ash-fall par- 

 takes of the same general characters as in eruptions from cinder 

 cones, we may here give our attention especially to the streams of 





