Vol. 62.] RECENT ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS. 477 



Cognoli (at an altitude of about 2000 feet), issued a great mass 

 of fluid lava, scoriaceous, and laden with steam, like unto that of 

 1872. In a very short time this stream advanced close to the 

 cemetery of Boscotrecase, devastating remorselessly on its way farm-- 

 houses and vineyards. 



Then ensued another pause, in some sort preparatory to the 

 maximum outburst, which took place during the night of the 7th 

 to the 8th of April. During the evening of the 7th there were 

 formidable explosions from the principal crater, spurting 3000 

 feet up into the sky fragments of incandescent material ; and these 

 explosions reached a climax between midnight and dawn of the 8th, 

 causing the earth to quake as far as Naples itself, and belching 

 forth an enormous quantity of scoriae and lapilli derived from the 

 magma, as well as masses of the crateric cone, which was by this 

 time in course of demolition. These ejectamenta, impelled by 

 a strong south-westerly wind, destroyed the villages of Ottajano 

 and San Giuseppe, burying them beneath a layer of lapilli more 

 than 2 feet thick, and killing some 200 of the hapless inhabitants. 

 Moreover, the cloud of ashes descended threateningly on Nola, crossed 

 the Apennines, and swept over the Adriatic into Montenegro. 

 Concurrently with this outburst, the cone was cleft more deeply 

 than ever before towards the south-south-east, while a fresh stream 

 of scoriaceous lava rushed tumultuously forth, overwhelming that of 

 the preceding day, cutting off the village of Boscotrecase in two 

 portions of it which are called the Oratorio, and reaching within 

 a few hours the cemetery of Torre Annunziata, against the walls of 

 which it stopped, breaking into two branches. 



With this outburst the maximum tension of the steam-saturated 

 magma relieved itself, the climax of paroxysmal eruptivity was 

 overpassed, and in the course of the 8th of April the decrescent 

 phase began, though still alarming and dangerous. In fact, owing 

 to the tremendous shock of the explosions, and the withdrawal of 

 support by the outflow of lava from its flanks, the cone of the 

 principal crater collapsed, having been cleft to a depth exceeding 

 300 feet. Thereby it choked up the throat of the volcano, and 

 opposed a fresh hindrance to the ejection of the steam still present 

 at some depth below. In the evening of the 8th this steam burst 

 forth continuously in huge jets from the crater, but without otherwise 

 causing any considerable commotion, carrying with it the com- 

 minuted fragments of the cone in the shape of immense rolling 

 clouds of dust which soared majestically into the sky up to heights 

 of 21,000 or 22,000 feet or more. These formed a great leaden 

 ' pine,' enveloping the ordinary clouds of the atmosphere, across 

 which zigzagged every now and then flashes of lightning accompanied 

 by a tremendous roar of thunder. This imposing spectacle was 

 magnificently seen from Pompei, as the wind, still blowing from the 

 south and south-west, impelled the gigantic cloud of dust to move 

 northward and north-eastward ; it descended with fatal effect on the 

 Campania Felice, accompanied by showers of mud-laden rain and 

 emanations of sulphur-dioxide (SOJ, mantling the countryside with 



Q. J. G. S. No. 247. 2 k 



