DOWN INTO VESUVIUS' CRATER.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3142, 6 November 1922, Page 7

DOWN INTO VESUVIUS' CRATER.

Three Knglish girJs travelling in Italy have had the novel experience of going down into the crater of Vesuvius and then of ascending the inner cone. which of late has been violently active. One of tlie three. .Miss K. M. Woodhouse, in the London Sphere relates the tri|> as follows : "The day on which two girl friends and myself decided to ascend Vesuvius was a gloriously warm and sunny one. A gentle breeze was blowing from the southwest, and we could see the smoke fioin the volcano being carried inland to the northeast. We had intended merely to do the usual climb up to the edge of the large mouth of the volcano, but when we arrived there with our guide we were so thrilled by the appearance of the inside of the crater that wo were seized with an irresistible impulse to descend into the crater itself and dim!) the inner active cone. This latter rises about lot) feet from the level of the crater lloor, and from it rcdhot lava and volumes of thick smoke were issuing at intervals. "I asked the guide if we could godown. Me seemed a little doubtful about it. By dint of a little persuasion, however, matters were satisfactorily arranged. What struck me most as we stood on the edge of the crater was the extraordinary stillness of everything; no stir or sound of any kind. except an occasional rumble, the prelude to an emission of smoke and stones from the inner cone. The dense fumes would fill the crater for a time and then gradually disperse. We start-, ed to descend the crater wall, walking over lava which crumbled under our feet. There was no path; we had to follow the guides as best we could, scrambling down the steep deseceut and getting our shoes filled with hot ashes. "At laet we reached the level floor, where the going was easier, though the heat iron) the earth .steadily increased, and we could now see the red-hot lava showing between the cracks on the surface. We were approaching the inner cone and every now and then were enveloped in clouds of sulphurous gases which made pur eyes smart and gave 'is a. choking feeling in our throats. "Through rifts in the clouds of smoke we could (see the inner cone towering above its, from the top of which belched forth great vohrme-s of smoke accom-

panied by showere of red-hot lava. It was really a terrifying spectacle, and 1 realised that a change in the direction of the wind might have most unpleasant consequences. "Never shall 1 forget the scene which greeted my eyes as 1 stood upon the lip of that inner cone! Just below my feet was a dark and sinister abyss within which thick masses of yellow vapor surged and rolled. Now would come ai nimble, increasing to a roar; the heavy smoke showed signs of greater agitation, was finally blown into the air, and a shower of glowing lava, with fragments, both large and small', fell within a few yards of us. It seemed to me the guide himself was almost 1 lightened. "We returned in a dilferent direction to the way we had come, crossing the door of the main crater, with its rough surface of fantastically shaped lava, somewhat resembling a dried up mud swamp, stained in parts by great yellow patches of sulphur. To my astonishment, on looking at one of my friends I noticed that she no longer had on the pretty rose colored frock with which she had started, but she now wore a d'irtv green one; only under the collar and belt could be found traces of the original rose. My own gray frock bad not suffered, but my rope soled tennis shoes which 1 was wearing had become most uncomfortably hot, and 1 noticed that the soles themselves were smoking. It interested us grcatlv to read in the papers that a few weeks after our ascent Vesuvius became very active, the inner cone being partially destroyed, large quantities of rock being thrown into the air and the sky lit up for a great distance by the reflection of the volcanic fires."