MOUNT VESUVIUS. 19 



The ascent to the Mountain, though steep and very rugged, may be 

 performed on mules or asses, as far as what is called the Hermitage of 

 San Salvatore, a lonely little building on a flat, from which rises the crater 

 or terminating cone of Vesuvius. But, hence, the remainder of the ascent, 

 which may be about one fourth of the entire height of the mountain, is 

 difficult and fatiguing in the extreme. The outer sides of the acute cone 

 by which you have to climb, are nothing but a deep accumulation of 

 cinders, ashes, and other yielding volcanic matter, into which your legs 

 sink, and where you lose, at least, one out of every three steps you take. 

 Even hardy and active men have been known to throw themselves down 

 on the sides of the cone in a complete state of exhaustion, long before 

 they could reach the top; but the summit once gained, fatigue is repaid 

 by prospects of beauty, which are scarcely rivalled upon earth. Naples, 

 and all the towns which we have mentioned, lie at your feet; before you 

 flows the magnificent bay, studded with islands; and inland stretches 

 the luxuriant plain of Campagna Felice, with cities and towns, and with 

 villas and hamlets, almost too numerous to count, while the sweeping 

 chain of the Appenines forms the extreme back ground to the picture. 



We have noticed the views first, as they are of greater interest than 

 the interior of the crater. This is nothing, in ordinary times, but a 

 great funnel, shaped hollow, round the edges of which you can walk in 

 perfect safety, and look down the curious depth. A modern writer, 

 who descended into it in the summer of 1816, when the mountain had 

 been inactive for some years, emitting only from time to time a little 

 smoke, thus describes his progress : Provided with ropes, which the 

 ciceroni, or guides, held at the edge of the hollow, he and a friend went 

 down the shelving side, for about 150 feet, when they landed on a circular 

 flat, that sounded hollow beneath their feet, but presented nothing very 

 remarkable, except a number of furmorali, or little holes, through which 

 smoke ascended. The interior of the crater was coated with lapilla and 

 sulphur, and in color a yellowish white. The fumes of the sulpfcur and 

 the pungent smoke, from the little holes at the bottom of the crater, 

 compelled a very speedy retreat, which was made with some difficulty, 

 and without any addition to their knowledge of volcanos. It must be 

 observed, that this principal crater on the summit of the mountain, is 

 always considerably altered in its form and features when the eruption 

 proceeds from it, and, moreover, that it is by no means the sole vent 

 which the subterranean fire of Vesuvius finds. On the contrary, the 

 fire and lava often issue from the sides of the mountain, far below, while 

 the superior funnel only emits smoke. In the winter of 1820, a mouth 



