THE ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume XIII, Issue 1370, 18 September 1858, Page 3

THE ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS.

(From the Correspondent of the Times.) Naples, June S. At the risk of being considered a one-ideaed man I send you another report of the burning

mountain. Wishing to have another and a more perfect view ot it. <,„ Sat irday last, nt about two hours of day. I started from Naples, <nii after escaping from all the varied seccature of guides, torch hearers, drivers, and a host of other improvised artists, found myself after three-quarters of an hour's walk, in front of the fire. Early as it was there were many there before me gazing on the wondrous scene. A vast lied of burning metallic-looking coke was sweeping down over smiling vineyards, carrying everything before it. The mass' was, I should say. 800 feet in width—the “Journal" says half a mile and how long the eye could' not calculate; for, looking upwards, it was lost behind the heights. As to the rate at which it was travelling, nothing could be more deceptive. Had it been m a narrow channel it w.mld have been comparatively easy to make s >tne decision, but its very grandeur baffl.-d me. Row afte row of the vines, however, fell before it—great trees shivered and shook and tossed about as if a heavy wind were blowing though it wa< a dead calm, and soon yielded to the destrojer—and, marching continually over he blacc fragments of scoriae on the surface, on t came without ceasing. Since midday i"had ad anced full 10p puces. There iiad been a house on a point not far distant, tenanted a few hours b dore, the fragments of which I saw in the fol Is of the lava. The poor creatures had taker rcfuce in a’cive formed be--' tween the upprr and-lower strata of an old lava eruption. Behind the shoulder of a hillock stood a handsome villa which had been Saved by its po-ition ; the grounds belonging to it were al l , however, buried under the black masses, and the tenants were standing on the. terrace look ng down upon the ruin and calculating the probabilities of the stream touching them. Though the whole of this enormous b d was in movement, still, running over it, or sometimes under it, were two channels of liquid ledhot liva, which had never stopped since they issued from their sources. The blackened bed had become so by an interval of suspension, and was moved on by the immense weight behind. On looking up and around me my wonder was whence could have come this enormous qcan ity of matter. Could it speak, what a h s-oiy would it tell, —how it had been turning ab iut to and fro under the surface of the land for the last six months, upheaving and ruining greit c ties, destroying cultivated lands, and carrying deuh to many thousands. The speculation was not an idle one, for in less than an ho r later said Professor Palmieri to me, “ I think the period of earthquakes has now termi ated for the present. I connect this eruption with them." 1 passed through a number of fine young vineyards, where the clustered fruits held out the promise of an abundant vintage. One after another they were shrivelling up and flaming like small torches, while the country people were saving what they ciuld. I pass on tc the next point of importance ; it is half-way up the mountain. I wind and wind up, and make a series of short cuts, s'eep enough to take all the breath out of a man’s body, and stand all at once on a crag, which c, mmands a view of one of the most magnificent spectacles I ever witnessed. The whole stream is visible from the source to the place which 1 have just left; it is coursing down, or rather they are coursing down, for there is more than one stream, as rapid as a cascade; in fact they are cascades of as pure liquid fire as can he well conceived ; sometimes they are hidden under the blackened scoria l , and then they emeige again, and run on as if impatient of destruction. It was one of those spectacles so astounding to look upon that a mnn seeks in some way to relieve his feelings. He bursts if he is silent : he must shout, scream, anything to let off his pent-up excitement. and I suppose that I did so myself. It is now dusk ; the Italian night is descending rapidly upon us, the sun has just gone down, and the stars are out in a minute, and we have to climb to the top ; so one pull more. There is a lazy vlaze Frenchman, with his C est toujour s le mriare? “And why should we go further r' —but we pull him along morallv and physically, and at last arrive at the Hermitage. Behind it is another grand spectacle, perhaps grander even than what we have just described. There is less apparent activity, but the gorge is wider, and the slow but certain manner in which the mass moves on gives a striking idea of power. It is 750 feet in width ; to calculate its bulk by millions of tons would be only trifling with a giant—we might better calculate by the million the enormous quantities which are issuing every minute from the many sources. In all there are 17 and upwards, says Professor Palmieri, and this fact constitutes one of the most striking features of this eruption, as does also the fact that they do not run in one line, but are opened in various parts. Another new feature is the long-continued fluidity of the lava, all showing the over-gorged state of the mountain and the immense power at work. It was the opinion of the Professor, however, that the eruption was on the decline, as no internal rumblings were now heard. The ■ lava had found its outlets, and was now pouring down with the rapidity and tranquillity of an unobstructed stream. There have been , eight earthquakes since the eruption began, • local only perhaps ; and the last, as marked in the seismograph of Palmieri, had taken place that morning at half-past 7 o’clock. Nothing had been removed from the Observatory, ncr in fact was there any immediate danger, as there was a vast depth behind which was not filled up as yet. An inconvenience might-have arisen from a union of the two streams, which were flowing down, and men were always out on the watch and to report. On descending we met thousands of people en route from Naples. The path for miles down was marked by a line of torches ; the gorge down which the lava was coursing looked from a distance like a vast crater, the walls of which were irradiated by the fires below. The stream had advanced so rapidly as to cut off our road, so we were compelled to make a long detour.' Arrived at the lava bed we stopped to gaze on "he scene of ruin and of grandeur, bought some coins imbedded in lava, and falling into the descending line of human beings soon found ourselves in Resina. It is only a short hour’s drive to Naples, and grand was the spectacle which the mountain presented from a distance : up to the very streets the reflection of two great streams fell across the sea. .■>. >.

On Sunday, at mid-day, the eruption seemed io be on the deci ease, -and the spectacle was less grand in the evening. Last evening, however, there was much greater activity, and this morning the increased length of thp line of smoke seems to indir a'e much greater activity. No life has as yet bten lost ; legs: and ff arms have been broken, and a child who had strolled out to the Ottrajano tide of th'e.lava'hadifallen asleep, and not until the stream was close up to it had some men perceived its dangerous situation and rescued it at considerable risk to themselves. .