ABOUT THE OBSEBVATORY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 91, 17 April 1906, Page 5

ABOUT THE OBSEBVATORY.

AND THE BRAVE MATTEUCIE.

Professor R. V. Matteucie. the hero who stuck to his ruined observatory through the whole of the first eruption, and who stands alone among scientists in the study of the great volcano,. has an interesting article in a recent cosmopolitan description of his life on the "Vesuvian lip. "I love my mountain, she and I dwell together in solitude, mysterious and terrible," he says. "I coma not leave her. and my friends say that her breath will scorch and wither my poor life one of these days; that she will bury my house in streams of liquid' metal, or raze it to its very foundations. Already she has hurt mc. and has injured mc sorely, yet I forgive her. I am hers always."

The lone resident of the fountain presides over a scientific observing station founded by an enthusiast in 1841. The building ia equipped with scientific instruments and laboratories, and here, at an altitude of 2000 ft., the professor records data of invaluable assistance to his confreres. The observatory has been damaged by torrents "of molten lava on several occasions. He had added to the collection of his predecessors magnificent specimens of lava fragments, with crystals and curious bombs ejected by the mountain. Volcanic sand, lipilli, and strange minerals, not of this earth, he says, find a place in the collection. A library of 1000 volumes has been amassed relating solely to the history of Vesuvius. Craters, he explains, come and go. A torrent of liquid fire may entirely demolish a new crater, or another may spring up like a mushroom. "I consider," he says, '""Vesuvius in eruption the most sublime sight in all Nature."