416 



F. A. Ferret — Vesuvius. 



The eruption left the cone obliquely truncated with the 

 highest portion at the westerly rim of the crater, where the 

 mountain is well braced with sills of lava. The lowest points 

 were a " V ''-shaped cleft on the rim to the north-northeast — 

 the " echancrure " of Lacroix — and the easterly rim, where 

 the cone is chiefly composed of friable material. Since the 

 eruption the height on this side has been still further reduced 

 by landslips, making the north and east the best general 

 direction from which to obtain a view of the entire crater 

 rim. Fig. 2 shows the appearance of the cone from this side, 

 the photograph having been taken from the Cognoli di 



Fig.- 4. 



Fig. 4. Vesuvius — Colle Umberto. 

 the Colle Cantercmi. 



showing encroachment of its lavas on 



Ottaiano, due northeast of the crater, on Sept. 4, 1908. Since 

 that time I have photographed the crater rim from the north 

 in order to show by direct comparison the alterations since 

 the eruption in the neighborhood of the " echancrure " (see 

 fig. 5). 



The interior of the crater has also changed its form since 

 the close of the eruption. At that time it might aptly have 

 been likened to a funnel, the walls sloping inward at a mod- 

 erate angle to a central well having almost perpendicular sides 

 and of such a depth as to render the bottom invisible from 

 any portion of the crater's edge. Subsequent downslips have 

 altered the funnel shape to one more nearly resembling a cup 



