^O MOUNT VESUVIUS. 



was found at the foot of the superior cone, and nearly on a level with 

 the Hermitage of San Salvatore. To use a homely comparison, this vent 

 was not unlike the mouth of a baker's oven, but a considerable stream 

 of lava which, when in a state of perfect fusion, resembles molten iron, 

 issued from it, and flowed down a chasm in the direction of the Torre del 

 Greco, the place which has so often suffered from the eruptions, A 

 singular and deliberate suicide was committed here. An unhappy French- 

 man walked up the mountain, and threw himself in at the source of this 

 terrific stream. The men who conducted him said afterwards, that he 

 had a quantity of gunpowder about his person ! He scarcely could 

 have needed its agency, for the intense fire must have consumed him, 

 skin, flesh, and bones, in a very few seconds. But though the eruptions 

 of Mount Vesuvius do not always proceed from the grand crater, it must 

 also be said, that those that do, are by far the most sublime in their 

 effects, and that nothing can well be imagined more picturesque and 

 striking, than to see, by night, the summit of that lofty cone, crowned 

 by fire, as it frequently is, for many succeeding weeks. The finest view 

 under those circumstances, is from the bay, over the waters of which it 

 often happens that the moon throws a broad path of silvery light in 

 one direction, and the volcano the blood-red reflection of its flames in 

 another. 



The earliest and one of the most fatal eruptions of Vesuvius that is 

 mentioned in history, took place in 79, during the reign of Titus. All 

 Campagnia was filled with consternation, and the country was over- 

 whelmed with devastation in every direction, towns, villages, palaces, 

 and " all which they inherit," were consumed by molten lava, and 

 hidden from the sight by showers of volcanic stones, cinders, and ashes. 

 Pompeii had suffered severely from an earthquake sixteen years before 

 the eruption of 79, and had been rebuilt and adorned with many a 

 stately building, particularly a magnificent theatre, where thousands 

 were Otngregated to see the gladiatorial shows, when this tremendous 

 visitation burst upon the devoted city, and burying its site to a 

 considerable depth with the fiery materials thrown from the crater. 

 "Day was turned into night," says a classic author, "and night into 

 darkness an inexpressible quantity of dust and ashes was poured out, 

 deluging land, sea, and air, and burying two entire cities, Herculaneum 

 and Pompeii, while the people were sitting in the theatre." 



It was during the eruption of 79, that Pliny, the Naturalist, fell a 

 victim to suffocation, as did Agrippa. The particulars of the eruption of 

 1779 are known to every school-boy, and although vividly described bv 



