Earthquakes and Volcanoes 



On the 24th of August a cloud of unusual size 

 and shape was seen hanging over the mountain. 

 It is described as having had the form of a huge 

 pine tree; and similarly shaped masses of cloud 

 usually accompany the eruptions of Vesuvius. 

 An enormous column of steam, mingled with 

 ashes and stones, shoots up from the crater to a 

 height of a thousand or twelve hundred feet, 

 where the clouds spread out in horizontal masses, 

 some miles in breadth, while the ashes and stones 

 fall down in showers. Attracted by so curious a 

 sight, the elder Pliny went to Stabias, about ten 

 miles from Vesuvius, but his eagerness to witness 

 the spectacle cost him his life. His nephew, 

 who stayed at Misenum, describes the scene 

 the showers of ashes, the ejection of red-hot 

 stones, the movement of the land, the retreat of 

 the sea, and other phenomena characteristic of 

 the eruption of a volcano attended by an earth- 

 quake. So vast were the quantities of ashes and 

 other fragmentary matter ejected, either dry or 

 mixed with water, that the unfortunate cities of 

 Herculanaeum, Pompeii, and Stabiae were buried 

 beneath deposits, in some places, thirty feet in 

 thickness. It is doubtful, however, whether any 

 true lava was erupted on this occasion. From that 

 date to the present day, Vesuvius has been more 

 or less active, though sometimes quiet for con- 

 siderable intervals. During the great eruption 

 just referred to, the south-western side of the 

 original cone was destroyed, but the half which 

 was then left has remained in existence up to the 

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