VESUVIUS IN ERUPTION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LI, Issue 9138, 10 July 1906, Page 5

VESUVIUS IN ERUPTION.

Tho following is a brief abstract from a most vivid pen-picture written by a resident of Castelamore, a village on the south side of Mount Vesuvius : —

"At sunset on April 7 a veritable fountain of fire burst through the dense smoke from the crater on the summit, breaking into millions of fiery bombs and glowing particles, which rained down the slope of the conej and rolled impetuously to the base on all sides. They seemed to dart from several vents within the crater. There was a heavy continuous rolling round of terrific explosions, which never stopped an instant. The rim of the enormous crater seemed to have grown smooth and greatly widened. All the smaller cones had apparently disappeared and been fused into a great central inferno. At the mouth of the volcano a r - lava stream 1500 ft wide and 15ft deep flowed downwards in three dier tinct stages or cascades. As the molten lava swept down upon the villages at the base of the mount wild panic ensued, the peoplo rushing into the streets shrieking witih terror. The town of Ottajano, containing a population of 13,000 inhabitants, was entirely destroyed, and now lies buried under cinders and stones at a depth none can say,. and twenty centuries after Pompeii, nature repeated herself.", — - Vesuvius in eruption will be graphically portrayed by Mr Edmund Montgomery ab the Opera House, Hawera, to-morrow (Wednesday) evening, by means of living ' pictures taken on the spot.