640 WILLIAM HERBERT HOBBS 



northeast of the mountain. Ottaiano, San Giuseppe and Somma, 

 which hug the northeastern and eastern base of the volcano, suffered 

 most, being in part buried under some three feet of ejectamenta. 

 Nola and Terzigno also suffered heavily, while a leaden sky and a 

 fall of fine cinder were almost universal throughout a fan-shaped 

 area extending at least to the Adriatic and roughly limited to the north 

 by Campobasso and to the south by AveUino and Bari (see Fig. 2). 



The principal loss of hfe was in San 

 Giuseppe, where in their terror the 

 people crowded into the little church 

 to prostrate themselves before the altar, 

 ^=^-< just before the roof fell from the burden 

 of ash upon it. Many others of the 

 weak house- roofs of heavy tiling (wholly 

 unfitted for such a neighborhood) also 

 Fig. 2.— Sketch map to show collapsed, and in some cases with re- 



the distribution of lapilli and ash sultant loss of life. The CircumvesU- 



from the principal explosions of ^-^^ Railway and the line from 



the eruption. T>.-r i r^ ^'^ i i i i i i 



Naples to Salerno were blocked by the 

 accumulation of ash; though upon the last-mentioned traffic was 

 resumed within twenty-four hours. With the outflow of the great 

 lava streams the violence of the explosions within the crater began 

 to wane (see Fig. 8). 



Conditions in Naples. — The shifting winds carried the later 

 and finer ash-fall for much of the time in the direction of Naples. 

 On the morning of the nth trains entered Naples from Caserta 

 through a cloud so dense that the impression of a tunnel was pro- 

 duced, though the sun was high in an otherwise clear sky. On 

 this day workmen were dismissed from the shops along the water 

 front on account of the darkness; and business in the city, already 

 almost paralyzed, practically ceased through the closing of the shops 

 along the main streets. The exodus of the great body of tourists 

 had been accomphshed largely on the 8th, though with much con- 

 fusion and a greatly augmented train service, the result being that 

 on the following morning many of the grand hotels dismissed their 

 servants. Large bodies of troops, increased by levies from other 

 cities, armed with shovels, were promptly sent to all the afflicted 



