INEXHAUSTIBLE ITALY 



291 



Street singing is an especially Neapoli- 

 tan institution, and when for the first 

 time one hears beneath his windows the 

 more often than not off-key versions of 

 the snappy, lilting, inexpressibly infec- 

 tious Neapolitan songs, he is enchanted, 

 and throws pennies freely. After a week 

 or so of it as a steady diet, day and night, 

 he inclines much more toward heavy 

 crockery ! 



VOLCANOES BIG AND LITTLE 



The entire Neapolitan littoral is vol- 

 canic, from Vesuvius on the east to the 

 storied tufa heights of Cumse on the 

 west. Between Cumae's ruins and 

 Naples lie those famed and mystic Phleg- 

 raean fields of our school days, which 

 nobody remembers anything about. They 

 have always been a theater of tremendous 

 volcanic activity, but the disturbances 

 here have no connection, curiously 

 enough, with Vesuvius ; also, the two 

 areas are wholly different in geological 

 character and formation. 



The spongy nature of the rock of the 

 Phlegrsean fields allowed the internal 

 steam and gases to escape with relatively 

 little resistance at numerous points ; so, 

 instead of one tremendous peak being 

 formed, as in the case of Vesuvius, many 

 little craters wart the ground. Thirteen 

 still exist, among them Solfatara, bellow- 

 ing out a vaporous combination of sul- 

 phur, hydrogen, and steam, and produc- 

 ing startling little special eruptions when 

 teased w T ith a lighted stick ; dried-up Lake 

 Agnano, with its famous, or infamous ! 

 "Dog Grotto," where about 18 inches of 

 warm, bluish, foetid carbonic acid gas 

 snuffs out torches even more quickly than 

 it used to the poor dogs kept there for 

 show purposes ; and somber Lake Aver- 

 nus, in ancient times surrounded by dense 

 forests and dark traditions, one of which 

 declared no bird could fly across it be- 

 cause of its poisonous exhalations. 



VESUVIUS : DESTROYER AND RENOVATOR 



The Cumsean Sybil was supposed to in- 

 habit a gloomy cavern in the south bank. 

 Her room and others in the rock are 

 probably part of the remarkable harbor 

 works built by the Emperor Augustus. 

 In this same region is the Monte Nuovo, 



455 feet high, thrown up in three days in 



1538- 



On the east Vesuvius dominates the 

 whole splendid region. He is the Cyclops 

 standing, blind and massive and treacher- 

 ous, in the midst of his rich vineyards, 

 olive groves, and vegetable gardens ; for, 

 though he spreads destruction in his blind 

 rages, the fact is that this entire plana is 

 the marvelously fertile soil that disinte- 

 grated lava and volcanic ashes make. It 

 bears huge crops, far greater and finer 

 than ordinary good soil can produce. 

 Among other things, it yields the grapes 

 whose spicy juices are so precious their 

 wine is termed Lacrima Cristi — Tears of 

 Christ. Is it any wonder that the native 

 returns again and again to repair the 

 damage and risk his life to produce such 

 wine and olives and fruit? 



BURIED HERCULANEUM AND POMPEII 



After the great eruption of A. D. 79 

 there were occasional eruptions which 

 varied in intensity, until 1500. when the 

 volcano became quiescent. The crater 

 walls grew up thick with trees and scrub, 

 while cattle and wild boars roamed the 

 grassy plain inside — all but an ominous 

 lower level of ashes and pools of hot, 

 gaseous water. Then, in December of 

 1 63 1, the whole interior was blown vio- 

 lently out, and 18,000 people are said to 

 have perished. Since then Vesuvius has 

 never been entirely quiet. During the 

 eruption of 1906 the column of smoke 

 and ashes rose to a height of about two 

 miles, and some of the ashes were car- 

 ried as far as observatories in France and 

 Switzerland.* 



It was horrible hot mud that over- 

 whelmed fashionable Herculaneum in 79, 

 belched from the crater as torrents of 

 steam, boiling water, and scoripe. It 

 raised the level of the entire countryside 

 65 feet, filled up the harbor, and wiped 

 out practically all the townsfolk. The 

 elder Pliny, who commanded the Roman 

 squadron in the roadstead, went to his 

 death near Stabise, like the gallant sailor 

 he was, trying to assist some hapless ref- 

 ugees. 



Herculaneum is more a misty memory 

 than anything else, for the mud turned 



*See article by Thomas A. Jaggar, Jr., in the 

 National Geographic Magazine, June, 1906. 



