ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS.

Southland Times, Issue 898, 12 February 1868, Page 3

ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS.

(From the Times) Naples, Nov. 21. Since writing to you my last letter, the eruption of Vesuvius has made such rapid and brilliant progress, that I cannot refrain from sending you some additional details. For the moment, it seems to have calmed our political excitement ; every one is talking of the " Mountain," not in a political, but in a physical sense, and thousands are speculating on the influence which it will exercise on the movements of foreigners. For one or two days it has been enveloped in euch thick clouds that all we have witnessed from a distance has been at intervals the lighting up of the dense mass with a lurid red colour. Yesterday, however, a bitter north-east wind swept and, cleared the cloud-capped summit, revealing a scene of extraordinary magnificence. Notwithstanding the stormy and rainy state of the weather, many parties have ascended this week, as has been evident at a [distance from the torches glittering like glowworms on the rugged sides of Vesuvius, and I borrow from the report of friends who ascended last night, some observations as to its actual state. Starting from Naples at about 8 o'clock, they got up to the Hermitage at half-past 10 o'clock, well soaked with the rain, and were by no means displeased to find an abundant " spread" laid out for another party of more provident ".Britishers." Imagine a midnight pic-nic on Vesuvius, with pigeon pie and champagne ad libitmn! Still the rain decended in torrents, and it was not until after two o'clock in the morning that in sheer desperation they emerged from their hospitable shelter and commenced the heavy ascent of the grand cone. "Yet all our sufferings and fatigue," say they, " were well repaid by the grandeur of the spectacle. To the crater itself we could not reach, but as near to it as was safe we sat down on a monticello of cinders, and watched the scene. Vesuvius shook and trembled with the efforts it was making ; it panted and roared like some gigantic furnace ;

I tliere was a sound rapid and repeated as ot the discharge of a volley of musketry, and there rose to the heavens, full 1000 feet, a gorgeous mass of lava, atones both great and small, and fine ashes. We calculated the intervals which elapsed before it fell at from five to ten seconds, varying in duration according to the violence of the eruptions, which took place almost every second. The larger stones — rocks they may almost be called — rolled at times down to the spot where we were seated, while the smaller ones were carried by the caprice of the wind in various directions. Not far from us, in the direction of Ofctajano, rolled down a stream of liquid lava from 40 to 50 feet in width, and 10 or 12 feet in height. Like pebbles on a shingly beach, agitated by a storm, was the noise it made in its progress ; scoriae on the surface fell continually over, and thus ever diminishing, yet ever increasing in proportions, the stream rolled steadily on, and reached the bottom of the mountain. There were, however, last night, many streams, presenting the appearance of an inverted hand, so that the mountain on this side seemed all ablaze. As I predicted, too, at the beginning of the week, the lava is now coming down towards the Hermitage. We can mark its red and sinuous course even from Naples ; and there is a promise of greater splendour than any we have yet witnessed. We can hear, too, the thunders of Nature's artillery, while each discharge is followed by a display which it is useless to attempt to describe. Different, yet scarcely less grand, are the day effects. Volumes and volumes of dark smoke are shot up perpendicularly into the air, and then, falling and circling and rolling one over the other, file off like heavy battalions towards Capri. The column of" smoke is perceptible to the eye all acroos the Bay, lingering horizontally until it derives a fresh impulse from each successive eruption. For eight days this brilliant spectacle has been exhibited with ever increasing grandeur, and the probabilities are that it will continue some time longer. Within 24 hours the temperature has changed from a degree of heat inducing lassitude to a piercing cold. Every one is muffled closely up, but the bright sun above us will soon warm up the atmosphere.