MOUNTAINS. 15 
is 3 ,900 ibet , ,iiv.l it m;iy bo ascended by tliroe 
I t eient routes, Avhieh are all very steep and difficult, from 
>e conical^ form o! the moiuiiaiu, and the loose ashes 
uch slip trora under tlie feet : still, from the base to the 
svirumit the distance is not more than three Italian miles. 
I lie circuinterenco cf the platform on the top, is 5,024 
eet, or nearly a mile. I'hcuce may be seen Porlici, 
Jscliia, Pausilippo, and the whole coast of the 
Naples, bordered with orange tress : the prospect 
IS hat of Paradise seen from the infernal regions. 
^ J!) approaching die mountain, its aspect does not con- 
vt} «iiiy impression of terror, nor is it gloomy, being cul- 
itated tor more than two-thirds of its height, and having 
Its brown top alone barren. There all verdure ceases; 
) et, when it appears covered with clouds, wdiich sometimes 
enconipass it^ middle only, this circumstance rather adds to 
lan dctiacts from the magnificence of the spectacle, 
pon the lavas which the volcano long ago ejected, and 
w nch, like great furrows, extend into the plain, and to 
le sea, are built houses, villages, and towns. Gardens, 
neyards, and cultivated fields, surround them ; but a 
en iment ot sorrow, blended with apprchetisioiis about 
uie future, arises 0.1 the recollection that, beneadi a soil so 
m u and so .smiling, lie edifices, gardens, and whole 
WW 115 swallowed up. Porlici rests upon Herculaneum; 
Pomn'™'* upon Resina ; and at a little distance is 
fecn c streets of which, after more than seven- 
now wa'lk^'^'^^A”^ non-existence, the astonished traveller 
year of tf" ^ long interval of repose, in the fest 
Chrl-ttn fi^ign of Titus, (the seventy-ninth of the 
thick d' v'olcano suddenly broke out, ejecting 
Herrni and pnmice-stones, beneath which 
fiad Stabia, and Pompeii, were completely bu- 
torian ^ijuption was fatal to the elder Pliny, the his- 
scienee to his humanity and love of 
rememK J'*' speakiifg of Vesuvius, the 
‘ feeret 1°^ untimely death excites a melancholy 
Was on t) Naples 
sentinel n 'tl occasion, ravaged and destroyed, pre- 
from fr ° “ luug succession of ejected matters 
om Herculaneum to Stahl, 
how 
aneuni to Stabia. The destruction did not. 
1^'® western part, but stopped at 
api«, which suffered comparatively little. 
