870 Mary Somerville. 



did they see the eruption better than I did who 

 remained at Santa Lucia, for you get too much be- 

 low the mountain on going near. On Sunday, 28th, 

 I was surprised at the extreme darkness, and on 

 looking out of window saw men walking with 

 umbrellas ; Vesuvius was emitting such an enormous 

 quantity of ashes, or rather fine black sand, that 

 neither laud, sea, nor sky was visible ; the fall was 

 a little less dense during the day, but at night 

 it was worse than ever. Strangers seemed to be 

 more alarmed at this than at the eruption, and 

 certainly the constant loud roaring of Vesuvius 

 was appalling enough amidst the darkness and 

 gloom of the falling ashes. The railroad was 

 crowded with both natives and foreigners, escaping ; 

 on the other hand, crowds came from Eome to see 

 the eruption. We were not at all afraid, for we con- 

 sidered that the danger was past when so great an 

 eruption had acted as a kind of safety-valve to the 

 pent-up vapours. But a silly report got about 

 that an earthquake was to take place, and many 

 persons passed the night in driving or walking 

 about the town, avoiding narrow streets. The 

 mountain was quite veiled for some days by vapour 

 and ashes, but I could see the black smoke and 

 silvery mass above it. While looking at this, a 

 magnificent column, black as jet, darted with incon- 



