Mineralogy and Geology. 127 
scene of most stirring interest after an interval of two days. e 
whole length of this usually quiet road was like a fair, and such was 
the throng of carriages which were moving on in three lines that it was 
with difficulty we ever arrived at our destination. As we approached 
the menaced neighborhood the inhabitants were removing their goods, 
and on a bridge in the middle of the little township of Cercolo (through 
which in the winter time thunders down from the summit of Vesuvius 
Where I walked on 
they imb me at first, and still 
strikes me as the most majestic feature in the whole scene, is the slow, 
silent, irresistible motion of that fiery flood. Active almighty power 
Without an effort! Sweeping everything before it, overcoming every 
_ Sistible manner as before. ‘There was a spot beneath my feet where a 
_ fall of mason work had been built to break the violence of the winter 
es i : 
Oe 
any 
