A  VISIT  TO  VESUVIUS. 
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fertile  slopes.  The  road  also  served,  in  many  places,  as  the  bed  of  a 
torrent  in  rainy  weather,  so  much  was  it  washed,  but  after  reaching  the 
plateau  it  was  better,  and  our  view  greatly  improved,  being  less  obstructed 
by  immediate  objects. 
Far  to  the  west  lay  Naples  on  its  beautiful  bay,  and  Posilipo,  with 
the  hills  of  Sorrento  and  Capri  nearly  south ;  whilst  beneath  us  and 
around  lay  the  accumulated  lavas  and  ashes  of  the  eruptions  of  eighteen 
centuries  of  the  historic  era,  which  under  the  disintegrating  action  of 
time  have  been  coated  by  a  fertile  soil  now  teeming  with  the  verdure  of 
spring,  wholly  unmindful  of  the  slender  lease  it  holds  on  permanence. 
In  glancing  over  the  numerous  villas  and  villages  which  stud  the  sloping 
sides  of  the  mountain  and  the  shores  of  the  bay,  it  is  nearly  impossible  to 
realize  that  this  is  the  grand  theatre  of  the  terrible  and  sublime  eruptions 
that  we  have  hastily  enumerated  above. 
Continuing  our  journey  mountainward  among  vineyards  and  orchards, 
we  abaudoned  the  road  and  entered  a  lateral  path,  a  change  rendered 
necessary  by  the  proximity  of  the  lava  of  1859,  which  destroyed  the  ex- 
cellent carriage  road,  built  by  government,  leading  to  the  observatory 
and  hermitage.  Subsequently  we  saw  the  point  where  the  road  passed 
under  the  lava.  Our  route  now  passed  over  1^e  lava  of  1859,  which  has 
to  be  crossed  to  reach  the  hermitage.  The  path  is  very  rough,  but  will 
soon  become  sufficiently  worn  to  serve  the  purpose.  The  recent  bed  of 
lava  is  here  spread  out  very  wide,  and  extends  to  the  base  of  the  cone. 
It  is  impossible  to  describe  the  appearance  of  utter  desolation  it  pre- 
sents ;  the  surface  is  covered  with  broken  masses  of  every  size  and  shape, 
mixed  up  with  and  partially  surrounded  by  the  most  curious  convolu- 
tions of  solidified  melted  matter  like  masses  of  fossilized  intestines  of 
some  gigantic  animal.  The  cooling  power  of  the  atmosphere  is  so  great 
that  very  soon  after  the  lava  reaches  the  plateau,  where  its  progress  is  less 
rapid,  the  exterior  becomes  chilled,  especially  at  the  edges,  and  as  the 
pressure  of  the  interior  fluid  mass  urges  it  forward  the  crust  is  broken  into 
fragments,  enabling  the  lava  to  escape,  and  in  its  turn  to  be  chilled,  until 
a  period  in  its  progress  arrives  when  the  crust  is  capable  of  resisting  the 
diminished  pressure  of  the  partially  cooled  interior.  It  is  this  incessant 
action  of  the  interior  on  the  exterior  that  gives  the  peculiar  vermiculated 
character  to  the  surface  of  the  lava.  In  color,  this  lava  is  nearly  black, 
extending  for  miles,  filling  up  ravines  and  valleys,  and  pouring  over  pre- 
cipices, and  in  one  spot  in  approaching  the  hermitage  forming  an  abrupt 
wall  of  slag-like  matter  thirty  or  forty  feet  high.  The  path  passed  near 
one  of  the  small  craters  of  the  eruption  of  1859,  but  we  did  not  leave  our 
horses  to  examine  it.  Before  reaching  the  Hermitage,  we  arrive  at  a  point 
where  the  lava  of  1855  is  seen.  Its  color  is  less  dark,  indicating  the 
effect  of  the  atmospheric  agencies,  but  yet  devoid  of  life,  saving  a  very 
few  plants  that  have  rooted  in  some  of  its  crevices.  The  Hermitage 
stands  on  a  bluff  or  spur  of  the  old  Mount  Somma,  just  at  the  opening 
