652 



DESTRUCTION OF 



[Ch. XXV. 



annihilated. The church was half buried in a rocky mass, 

 but the upper portion served as the foundation of a new 

 edifice. 



The number of the population when I was first there, in 

 1828, was estimated at fifteen thousand; and a satisfactory 

 answer may readily be returned to those who enquire how 

 the inhabitants can be so ' inattentive to the voice of time 

 and the warnings of nature/ * as to rebuild their dwellings 



on a spot so often devastated. No neighbouring site un- 

 occupied by a town, or which would not be equally insecure, 

 combines the same advantages of proximity to the capital, 

 to the sea, and to the rich lands on the flanks of Vesuvius. 

 If the present population were exiled, they would imme- 

 diately be replaced by another, for the same reason that the 

 Maremma of Tuscany and the Campagna di Soma will never 

 be depopulated, although the malaria fever commits more 

 havoc in a few years than the Yesuvian lavas in as many 

 centuries. The district around Naples supplies one amongst 



is most frequently renewed, and where the renovation is ac- 

 companied, at different intervals of time, by partial de- 

 struction of animal and vegetable life, may nevertheless be 

 amongst the most habitable and delightful on our globe, and 

 the remark applies as well to parts of the surface which are 

 the abode of aquatic animals as to those which support 

 terrestrial species. The sloping sides of Vesuvius give nourish- 

 ment to a vigorous and healthy population of about eighty 

 thousand souls ; and the surrounding hills and plains, to- 

 gether with several of the adjoining isles, owe the fertility 

 of their soil to matter ejected by prior eruptions. Had the 

 fundamental limestone of the Apennines remained uncovered 

 throughout the whole area, the country could not have sus- 

 tained a twentieth part of its present inhabitants. This will 

 be apparent to every geologist who has marked the change 



in the agricultural character of the soil the moment he has 

 passed the utmost boundary of the volcanic ejections, as 

 when, for example, at the distance of about seven miles from 



Sir H. Davy, Consolations in Travel, p. 66. 



• . *• 



riod 



<fl 



*ar> 



• 



•-■ 



i 



T anean 



mpania . 

 . an< 



ildin . \ 

 • of 1 



- !1 



k q st: 



innumerable examples, that those regions where the surface • A 



310] 



ill tin 

 toftl 



,;,. 



rged 



inn 



ill. 



b- 



who 





s 





j a& 



' 4 tho8( 









< 





<Ur« 



