424 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



trunk, which extended itself at the top into a sort of branches." The phenomenon excited 

 the philosophical curiosity of Pliny to have a nearer view, and he was preparing to obtain 

 it, when a pressing message was delivered to him for help, from the occupants of some 

 villas in peril. " When hastening to the place from whence others fled with the utmost 

 terror, he steered his direct course to the point of danger, and with so much calmness and 

 presence of mind, as to be able to make and dictate his observations upon the motion and 

 figure of that dreadful scene. He was now so nigh the mountain, that the cinders, which 

 grew thicker and hotter the nearer he approached, fell into the ships, together with 

 pumice-stones, and black pieces of burning rock. They were likewise in danger, not 

 only of being aground by the sudden retreat of the sea, but also from the vast fragments 

 which rolled down from the mountain, and obstructed all the shore. Here he stopped to 

 consider whether he should return back again, to which the pilot advising him, ' Fortune,' 

 said he, ' befriends the brave. Carry me to Pomponianus. ' " Proceeding to Stabioe, he 

 found Pomponianus in the greatest alarm, and the paroxysms of the mountain became, 

 still more violent, so as to compel them to an instant flight. " They went out then, 

 having pillows tied upon their heads with napkins ; and this was their whole defence from 

 the storm of stones that fell around them. It was now day every where else, but there a 

 deeper darkness prevailed than in the most obscure night, which, however, was in some 

 degree dissipated by torches and other lights of various kinds. They thought proper to 

 go down farther upon the shore, to observe if they might safely put out to sea, but they 

 found the waves still run extremely high and boisterous. There my uncle, having drank 

 a draught or two of cold water, threw himself down upon a cloth which was spread for 

 him, when immediately the flames, and a strong smell of sulphur, which was the forerunner 

 of them, dispersed the rest of the company, and obliged him to rise. He raised himself 

 up with the assistance of two of his servants, and instantly fell down dead, suffocated, as 

 I conjecture, by some gross and noxious vapour. As soon as it was light again, which 

 was not till the third day after this melancholy accident, his body was found entire, and 

 without any marks of violence upon it." No lava was emitted from Vesuvius upon this 

 occasion, but the shower of sand, stones, and cinders, lasting eight days and eight nights, 

 accompanied with violent falls of rain, was so great, as to overwhelm the cities of Stabia;, 

 Herculaneum, and Pompeii, which vanished from the face of the country, and lay buried 

 under horizontal beds of loose tuff and lapilli till the commencement of the last century. 

 Herculaneum, indeed, was subsequently covered to the depth of eighty or a hundred feet 

 with solid volcanic masses, the consequence of repeated eruptions, so as to render its total 

 disinterment hopeless ; but Pompeii has remained with the mantle of ashes which originally 

 destroyed it, about twenty feet thick, the loose material rendering its removal comparatively 

 easy. Here, in the Street of the Tombs, as it has been called, a part of the suburbs of 

 the city, seventeen skeletons were found huddled together in one of the vaults of a villa, 

 while two others, one bearing a key, and supposed to have been the master of the house, 

 lay stretched in the garden. Two of those in the vault were the remains of children, 

 whose fair hair was well preserved ; most of the rest were females, the impression of their 

 forms on the volcanic sand indicating youth and beauty. 



Professor Silliman has made admirable use of these unfortunate cities, in illustrating 

 the nature of geological evidence. Referring to the very singular fact, that while history 

 mentions the existence of the cities repeatedly, and records the eruption of Vesuvius, as 

 in the letter of Pliny, no allusion whatever occurs to their destruction, he observes : 

 "When, in 1738, the workmen, in excavating a well, struck upon the theatre of Hercu 

 laneum, which had been buried for seventeen centuries beneath the lava of Vesuvius ; 

 when, subsequently (1750), Pompeii was disencumbered of its volcanic ashes, and thus two 

 ancient cities were brought to light ; had history been as silent respecting their existence 



