THE STORY OF VESUVIUS.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2021, 24 January 1887, Page 2

THE STORY OF VESUVIUS.

A little more than eighteen centurieh since, the form of the mountain was quite different; its height was probably ■ some hundred yards less than at present, its outline a blunt, truncated cone having a wide crater at the summit. .No eruption in the memory of man has disturbed the peace of the di trict; scarce a tradition of such an occurrence appears to have lingered ;' the floor of the crater was overgrown with brushwood and trees, its walla were festooned with ivy and the wild vine. Once only does it become ■ prominent in history, when the Capuan gladiators sheltered themselves for a while in this natural hill fort, from which, under command of Hpartacua, they escaped to begin the Servile War. In the year 79 of the present era there was a change; earthquakes agitated the, neighbouring district, and at last the imprisoned fires broke forth. From the crater of Vesuvius a large dark cloud rose into the air, spreading itself out like a great pine tree; presently a hail of red-hot scoria came rattling down over the flank of the mountain, and as night fell the cloud grew larger and darker, and - the shower of stones became thicker heavier, and more widely spread. All night long the darkness for many a mile was rendered blacker still by the thickly falling scoria, though illuminated at intervals by the lurid gleam., from the mountain and rendered jet more awful by the incessant earthquake shocks. Morning dawned at last, and later still the air cleared; half the ancient crater wall had vanished, leaving the fragment, which now bears the name of Somma, while beneath its ruins Herculaneum, Pompeii, Stabiae, lay buried, and the ground, even at Misenum, was white as snow with the fallen ashes.