ITALY'S SAFETY VALVE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 268, 12 November 1928, Page 3

ITALY'S SAFETY VALVE.

VESUVIUS IN REVOLT. COLUMNS OP SMOKE AND FLAME ETNA'S NEW OUTBURST. Etna's new outburst last week follows closely upon the renewal of activity of its more famous neighbour, Vesuvius. Vesuvius in normal mood shows onlv a wisp of smoke and does not make the night over her red with sudden flashes o£ fire, nor does she rumble so. A few weeks ago she was, to all appearance?, sound asleep. She takes long sleeps: she has been known to sleep for 500 years. So long did she sleep after her destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum that it became almost a legend and was forgotten by the peasants dwelling about her. Goats grazed in the | crater upon the rich, green grass that grew along the shores of two lake 6 deep within that mighty hole. The Eruption of 1631. Then suddenly she gave warning, which few heeded, and poured seven rivers of lire down into the surrounding villages, destroying them and kill : ->g hundreds. One of these rivers rushed pell-mell into the Bay of Xaples, where the water boiled for days. This was the great eruption of 1631. The peasant? dwelling in Torre del f»rcco and in Massa di Somma and other small settlements that were wiped out. took it that demons lived souiowi;* re under the mountain. Now Vesuvius is again in eruption: not a tremendous one such as the recorded eruptions of the past, but one at least showing she still has vitality. She has not driven the population away from her base, but her grand pyrotechnical display has again become a lively attraction for visitors. The best time for the visit is at dusk. The great bulk of tbe mountain is outlined against the sky and the reflection of "Vesuvius' fires plays above the crater like lightning on a summer evening. Flash after flash illuminates the sky and gives a coral pink colour to the smoke. The. automobile has to he abandoned as the tortuous trail becomes cluttered with lava and cinders. A horse becomes your companion. You must put your trust absolutely in his good scdso. He has climbed the mountain many a time before and knows the tricks and pitfalls of the sliding lava. Tf men prefer to go in comfort by a funicular railway in the light of the sun, let them go. Why seek mystery and grandeur and beauty where raucous voices suddenly bring you back to city streets and food and the commonplaces of life? The faithful horse trudges slowly. 1 Cinder and lava slip from under his - feet, but he seems to sense every danger. 7 The clirab becomes so steep that in " many places you feel as though you t might easily slide backward from your 3 mount. The way is lit now and again by 1 red flashes against tbe smoke clouds r above. At length it becomes too steep L > and too rough for further horse travel, e You must go on afoot. A feeling of e greater security comes as you stand again on your own feet and trust to your own judgment and jour own sicrht. The red flashes continue to light your ■ way as you step from one jagged piece '• of lava to another. Then suddenly a cloud, a fog bank such as London knows, blows under the smoke, dims them. Tt moistens your clothes and makes the nir distinctly chilly. At the edge of the crater the fog has wrapped you in oblivion. Gray mist has made you „ blind.

You feci that if this is all, at least yon have been repaid, for yon have seen tbe approach to the world's most famous fire and one of its most destrr Presently there is a sound, an appalling sound. It is neither thunder nor the roar of heavy seas on a coast but rather a weird combination. It makes yon stand and listen, half wanting to hear ft again, and yet, somehow, dreading it. It comes again and again, seeming particularly weird in the enveloping fog. Now the fog lifts slowly. Through ft you make out fires in fantastic shape# as pale as glow worms. Brighter and brighter they grow as the mist dissipates, and before yon fully realise it you are looking into a mighty abyss where fire paints strange patterns in the dark below. It is the colour of the red sun as it sinks into tbe horizon of a tropic sea. The nevef-ceasing red flashes tell where the active crater is. Yon feel drawn on like a moth drawn to a lamp. As you move toward it the rumbling rrrnws louder and louder. The flashes become more blinding in the darkness. Over jagged rock formations, on, on towards that place of awe. you grope vcur way. baiting here for the fiery sky to point the next rock upon which to leap. It is necessarily slow, bnt it gives exhilaration. Suddenly through the Tacks l»eneath you see a red glow. Twenty feet below is fire. A further advance and it shines in your face, only ten feet down. Now it is five. Then a wide vent in the rocks appears and yon j see, rolling by. a Tiver of fire' J Close by the Flames. I You wish a gas mask. The smoke j from crevices all around is charged heavily with sulphur. The winds, howi ever, befriend you, and the fumes are ■ blown here and there, allowing frequent | breathing spells. ; Shall we Aire a further advance? • Could the miracle be greater by chalr lenging fate 4fc»re impertinently? A terrific rumbling far below, the grinding s of rocks as they fall back into the crater, 1 a sky illuminated as <Jnly such a fire • could illumine it. I And this mighty mountain is but one - of a group that once stood near by. 1 The whole Bay of Naples is the crater ; of a volcano that baffles the imagination. ; Under that sea other cones dwell. Etna and Stromboli are but children gone a ® little astray. s Now, back to the horse. How dark it is below! It will take a lonp time " to reacli the nearest light, hut we shal! I halt at a little hovel half way down f the mountain and take a glass of e Lacrima Christi, the wine of the dis--5 trict. and rest the horse. Far away in i the distance the lights—such little lights !• man can make —form a crescent around f the Bay of Naples, stretching from 5 to Sorrento. Behind, the flashes ii and rumbles go on. s