THE COASTS OP SICILY. 125 



thirty-five to forty feet high, from the mouth of 

 which eddying clouds of fiery smoke, mixed with 

 ashes and scoriae, were being incessantly ejected, 

 accompanied by a noise resembling that of mus- 

 ketry. Every day some opening was made in this 

 lava floor, on the surface of which the liquid matter 

 was freely poured forth, and then solidified. New 

 strata were consequently formed on the top of the 

 older ones, which, after being again partially fused, 

 re-entered into the general mass. At the period of 

 our visit, the crater of Vesuvius was filled almost to 

 its margin with fluid lava covered by a solid crust, 

 the whole resembling a pool of water whose surface 

 has been frozen, and on which we were able to skate 

 as on ice. We had not much difficulty in descend- 

 ing into the interior of the crater, and seated on a 

 large block of lava, lying at ten feet from the small 

 cone, we partook at our leisure of a cold fowl and a 

 bottle of Capri. 



On reaching the borders of this enclosure, we 

 could perceive, notwithstanding the brightness of the 

 day-light, that the lava in some of the fissures was 

 tinged with a bright red colour ; and we even per- 

 ceived that some of the blocks were shaking, as if 

 they were being moved by the action of an invisible 

 hand. Occasionally, too, a hollow detonation was 

 heard within the body of the mountain. During 

 our dinner the flashes had become more numerous 

 and vivid towards the eastern edge of the crater, at 

 about fifty paces from us. It was evident that some 

 crisis was at hand. The detonations which pealed 

 forth from under our feet became louder and more 



