ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIV, Issue 61, 27 October 1855, Page 4

ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS.

[From the Liverpool Albion, May 28.]

A correspondent of the Athenceum writes from Naples, on the Bth instant, as follows :—: —

•• Do the wells (?ry up— is a city swallowed up— is there an earthquake or the shock of one down in Calabria, or are credulous foreigners shaken in their beds at Nice— tbe finger of the public is sure to be pointed at Vesuvius, as much as to say, ' That's the villain who occasions all this fear and trembling.' Truth to say, too. that as far as regards Naples, the fears of the inhabitants are more justifiable, for the lower part of tbe city is completely hollow beneath, and it would not require a great effort to lift up the thin crust on which dwell so many thousands of noisy, busy souls. Since the last eruption, we have experienced many shocks of earthquake in Magna Greeci; Melfi has been destroyed; at the beginning of this year a portion of the crater fell in ; smoke in greater quantities than usual has at times been vomitted forth; still, so late as ten days since, the guides prophesied that an eruption would not take place till October. It is singular that these catastrophes have taken place, I will not say generally, for I have not sufficient data to «o upon, but frequently about the time of the full moon. On this occasion she was eclipsed, adding vastly to the mysterious grandeur of the spectacle, and awakening in the minds of the vulgar a species of pious awe. One of the lights of heaven was going out, whilst a subterraneous fire was bursting forth, scorching and destroying everything within its reach. All the public places have, therefore, been crowded nightly with curious or anxious gazers, and a stranger entering the city might have readily imagined that a series of demonstrations was lieing made in different parts. I think the finest view was to be obtained near Ine Church of the Carnival, for the fire does not flow down so much in front as on the side or the back. Standing, then, near the church, sacred, hy-the-by, to the memory of Masaniello, a broad path of light lies across the sea to Resina. Over this the imagination runs, and, advancing up the mountain-, sees a river of fire descending, like the coils of a serpent, from the recently-opened mouths. On the very top, the huge crater is comparatively quiet and inactive ; one might fancy that the portion which fell in earlier in the year had gorged it, and that like a huge boa it was now lying insensible in all the agonies of indigestion. But an examination on the spot is worth a hundred distant, imaginary views, so on the second night I started for Resina. On the ontbkirts of Naples, in the centre of a bridge, is a large statue of St. Januarius, with an inscripMon beneath, recording the miraculous interposition to stay the destruction of a former eruption. The saint was holding out his right hand, as though he was saying, 'Thus far and no farther,' whilst his face gleamed with the recent fires. Still nearer Resina, a long inscription calls on posterity to be vigilant, and describes the impetuosity, the suddenness, the overwhelming destruction of an eruption; and now again the boiling lava was flowing down the sides of the mountain, and people were driving and hurrying along the road by thousands, "as if to throw themselves into the flames they were warned to avoid. Resina is passed, and we are going up the moun tain on fool : for ibe best of all reasons, our horses will not pull us. Nor were we alone in our (lisaster; many were the carriages stuck deep in the fine dust which had been thrown out during former eruptions. The neighbourhood of the Hermitage was like a horee fair, and a motley group indeed the human or Neapolitan species presented in its many varieties. Without guides, for we had nothing more to do than join the stream of living creatures that was flowing all in one direction, we pushed on to the grand point of attraction, and, deviating a hllle from the road, we crossed the lava of yesterday's deposit. It was an immense black bed of coke, to all appearances ; here and there the occasional elevations looked like waves which had been arrested in their course. The heal which ascended was sometimes intolerable; it burned our shoes. We were walking over the blackened crust which lightly lay on the surface of a river of file. We took up loose pieces of the coke, and the glowing lava appeared, at which we lighted our cigars, and on which, throwing paper and other inflammable materials, flames sprang up. This vast bed, which is now again in motion, was then stationary, yet divided only by an imaginary line from the mos>t remarkable spectacle I ever witnessed : a long, fiery, extended plain, moving on aluwly and irretiistildy, as if the power which set it in motion required not to make itself known by any sudden or violent jerks. There were a majesty and a continuity in its progress which made an impression upon me tbat I can never forget. Although it was nearly a level, yet unceasingly it moved on like an Alpine glacier, carrying everything with it. The noise, too, which marked its course, reminded me at times of the murmuring, rattling kind of noise which an Alpine stream makes as it rolls or rattles over its shingley bed. The masses of coke ground lightly one agaitibt the other, and it seemed to one as if a thouwnd voices were uttering hish — ah — sh. There was a point ac which the scene, grand as it was, became yet grander. Half-way between the Hermitage and the foot of the cone is a vast ravine, which t>t>parates Vesuvius and Somma. A different wind might have brought the lava more to the north and west, down upon Ercolano ; as it was, it took the direction of this ravine, which descends more than a thousand feet below, into the villages of Massa di Sotnma, San Sebastiano, Madonna del Arco, and other?. The first descent into this ravine is precipitous, and over it rolled this stream of fire, in width about 200 feet, forming a cascade of liquid flame. Even in its fall, too, 1 imagined that it was not forgetful of its dignity; there was no impetuosity in its movements ; it rather moved than dashed over, and then kept on its course through tbe plantations of poplars and chesnuts with which the sides of the ravine were planted. They are now, of course, utterly destroyed. A sudden flame, and a shriek, and a waving to and fro, and tree after tree succumbed to the power of the fire. I never saw movements nor heard sounds more expressive of suffering; I could not disem barrass myself of the impression that they were human, and as they writhed and toppled over, found myself exclaiming to some Italian friends 'Poverini!' The abyss into which the lava rolled might have been unfathomable, for no eye could pierce it, and the huge masses of red smoke which heavily rose from below threw an indescribable air of mystery over the whole, except when a sudden pull of wind, clearing the opposite side shows us the burning trees. There was yet another point to he attained, without doing which 1 could not content myself; so, like the traveller who has co f ne upon some unknown river in a strange land, I determined to trace back the fiery stream to its j very bouree. Taking for our guide a man who was selling coins, which he bad imbedded in burning lava, and without any other light than tbat which proceeded from the mountain, we tumbled along over our rugged path of coke, listening as we walked to the history of the various strata against which we were knocking our shin?. As we rose higher and higher we obtained a further view of that marvellous river on our left, which' here appeared to be divided into two branches, and a short distance further brought us to the foot of the cone. There were then beven mouths open on this side, vomitingflame, and smoke, and lava.and twoof them throwing up stones, though not large. 'We must see them,' said I; nay, ' we must stand by them.' It was one of those situations when a man does not reason, but when he is drawn irresistibly along by that wonderful fascination winch draws tlu-

bird to the serpent. So up through the heavy dust we toiled, over our ankles at every step, puffing, panting, and perspiring, until we reached the goal to which our wishes tended. The noise, though not so loud as I have heard it, was like that of a distant, continual cannonade; and at every shot up came fire and stones, or out gurgled lava. The latter flowed down before us in gentle and regular undulations, the former fell in all directions, and some amongst us, but being small we had more fear of that dense mass of red, lurid clouds which were piled up in the background ready to do battle. Had the wind changed, we should have fallen as lifeless as the soldiers of Sennacherib, and it was a fitful night. Parties had more than once returned in consequence of the clouds sweeping down in their direction; and the ' avanii,' ' avanti' of the guide, and a deep gulf of sulphur, warned us, too, that it might be as well to go down. ' Not, however, till we have got some lava with our own hands, and put some money in it.' There, now we are ready. It is only to repeat oneself to use the terms ' wonderful,' 'magnificent,' 'miraculous,' and yet little else could I utter that evening. Returning, we found ourselves half surrounded by a semicircle of fire: it accompanied us to the edge of the cascade, and once more we placed ourselves there again. Sometimes large masses broke away out of the stream as it rolled down,' and falling down precipitously, tumbled over and over. The glare and the heat, which at such times were thrown out, blasted and scorched us ; we were obliged to lift up our hands and fly for it. Since that evening many changes have taken place. Several of the new boeche have united ; another has burst out, and under the following alarming circumstances. A Spanish family were standing on the cone, and nearly on the same site as ourselves, when they fancied they both felt and heard the ground cracking beneath them; it was a run for their lives ; wl\en up shot a stream of stones and lava, and a new crater was formed. The old crater, too, at the summit, is beginning to rouse itself from its lethargy, and is now adding to the destruction which is pouring down upon the devoted country beneath. Another change has taken place in the bed which I first described as that from which I looked down on the fiery cascade. It is also in motion ; and to give you any idea of it, I must beg you to imagine Oxford- street or the Strand taking it into its head to go into the country, not in detached parts, but in one solid, continuous whole. On moves this fiery serpent, now upwards of four miles in length, its jaws devouring plantations and vineyards, while its huge body is emerging, coil after coil, from the shattered side of Vesuvius. God preserve the poor people below! I went round the mountain last night to the villages of Massa di Somma and Sebastiano, and met the river in its course. I was there till two o'clock in the morning, but must reserve my description of what I then witnessed till another occasion. I am stupifled by it; all that I had hitherto seen faded before it. Not all the various, picturesque, and, under ordinary circumstances, amusing incidents which one met with, could relieve the ono absorbing feeling of awe which took possession of me. Suffice it, for the present, that I looked on a cascade of glowing lava, without exaggeration, me thousand feet in height. It was Niagara on fire; and now it is in the very streets of a village. The excitement in the capital ami throughout the neighbourhood id intense; the whole population swarms out to the great scene ot interest. On the first night on which I went up the mountain I met the King, the Queen, and all the Royal family after midnight. Many remained the whole night, for it was just one of those scenes that it whs impossible to gaze upon sufficiently. What a contrast did the view present as we returned ! As we left the fires more and more behind, the moon resumed her influence, and shed her softened, silvery li^lit on the placid bay and the spectral outline of the lovely coat>t. Capri was distinctly looming up in the distance; and circling round to Naples, and Procida, and Ischia, the eye marked the many points rich with poetic and historic interest. The mountain increases in ac tivity, and a portion of Massa di Somma has been destroyed. The poor inhabitants are flying in all directions with furniture, with the timber they have cut down, with whatever, in short, they can save from the general ruin."

A private letter from Naples says : —

"On the 7tb, the whole Fosso di Faraone presented d river of tire of about 100 feet in depth, and 700 in breadth, overflowing on different point?, and advancing toward j San Sorio, where it destroyed one house in the presence of the horrorstricken inhabitants, who abandoned their dwellings with all they could carry. All of a sudden, how* ever, the- fiery element divided, one branch taking the direction of the water course of the'village of La Cercola, where a regiment of sappers were sent to pull down the bridge, that it might not impede the rush of the lava; the other turned towards San Sorio and Portici, scorching everything on its way, but stopping, fortunately, at a short distance, without causing any damage to either place. It would be impossible to describe the stupendous beauty of this eruption, which we hope is now eude i."