66 SECRETS OF EARTH AND SEA 



and some Neapolitan acquaintances looking at Vesuvius 

 across the bay from Pausilippo, where we had established 

 ourselves, when we noticed that a long line of steam was 

 rising from the lower part of the ash-cone and that puffs 

 of steam were issuing at intervals from the crater. " Dio 

 mio ! Dio di Dio ! " cried the Neapolitans in terror, and 

 expressed their intention of leaving Naples without an 

 hour's delay. As night fell a new glowing line of fire 

 appeared far down near the base of the ash-cone, whilst 

 what looked in the distance like sparks from a furnace, 

 but were really red-hot stones — each as big as a Gladstone 

 bag — were thrown every two or three minutes from 

 the crater. 



We hired a carriage, drove to Resina (built above 

 buried Herculaneun), and walked up towards the 

 Observatory in order to spend the night on the burning 

 mountain. We found that two white-hot streams, each 

 about twenty yards broad at the free end, were issuing 

 from the base of the cone. The glowing stones thrown up 

 by the crater were now separately visible; a loud roar 

 accompanied each, spasmodic ejection. The night was 

 very clear, and a white firmly-cut cloud, due to the 

 steam ejected by the crater, hung above it. At intervals 

 we heard a milder detonation — that of thunder which 

 accompanied the lightning which played in the cloud, 

 giving it a greenish illumination by contrast with the 

 red flame colour reflected on to it by red-hot material 

 within the crater. The flames attributed to volcanoes are 

 generally of this nature, but actual flames do sometimes 

 occur in volcanic eruptions by the ignition of combustible 

 gases. The puffs of steam from the crater were separated 

 by intervals of about three minutes. When an eruption 

 becomes violent they succeed one another at the rate of 

 many in a second, and the force of the steam jet is 

 gigantic, driving a column of transparent super-heated 



