SECRETARY'S REPORT. 207 



and device, many with seals, fowls and game ready for cooking, 

 oxen, sheep, fruit of various kinds, in glass jars and dislics, 

 and other articles, all of which give an idea of the extent 

 of civilization and luxury existing there at the time. The 

 ceilings and walls of many of the houses are still covered with 

 fresco paintings with the colors as bright apparently as the day 

 they were put on, and wonderful for the skill and art with 

 which they must have been finished. The floors of a large 

 proportion of the houses which we entered were laid in splendid 

 and costly mosaics, which are still perfect and beautiful. The 

 temples were, many of them, remarkable for their splendor. 

 The theatres still stand, with their seats rising up row above 

 row, just as they were built. The immense amphitlieatre, 

 capable of seating perhaps twenty thousand people, is still 

 preserved. A mere allusion to the many interesting objects at 

 Pompeii would lead too far. The city is, perhaps, three or 

 four miles from the base of Vesuvius, and now nearly that 

 distance from the shore of the bay, which is supposed to have 

 receded by the elevation of the land at the time of the erup 

 tion, as there is sufficient evidence that the city stood directly 

 upon the shore originally. Indeed the immense rings for 

 mooring vessels are still to be seen in the walls on the side 

 towards the harbor. • 



Herculaneum is three or four miles nearer to Naples. That 

 was buried at the same time from sixty to a hundred feet deep, 

 and is far more inaccessible than Pompeii, from the fact that a 

 large town, Portici, now stands directly over it. But we 

 descended with the aid of a guide and torches, and explored its 

 immense theatre, magnificent in its proportions, and went 

 through more or less of the houses, but very little is to be seen, 

 compared with Pompeii. 



The next morning, by three o'clock, we were up and off again 

 for the ascent of Vesuvius. Tlie road as far as Portici, the 

 same as before. Then we turn and commence a gradual 

 ascent on small ponies. About a third of the way up we pass 

 the vineyard of the celebrated lacrima christi wine. The vine 

 crowns the foot and sides of the mountain, and grows in great 

 luxuriance far up. A considerable part of the way lies over 

 immense fields of solid lava, which only four or five years ago 

 flowed down and destroyed many acres of valuable vineyards, 



