ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 181, 28 February 1868, Page 2

ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS.

The correspondent of the London Times, writing from Naples, Nov. 21, says : —Since writing to yon my last letter, the eruption of Vesuvius has made such rapid and brilliant progress, that I cannot refrain from sending you some additional details. For the moment, it seems to have calmed our political excitement; evey one is talking of the " Mountain," not in a political, but in a physical sense, and thousands are speculating on the influence which it will exercise on the movements of foreigners. For one or two days it has been enveloped in such thick clouds that all we have witnessed from a distance has been at intervals the lighting up of the dense mass with a lurid red color. Yesterday, however, a bitter north-east wind swept and cleared the cloud-capped summit, revealing a scene of extraordinary magnificence. Notwithstanding the stormy and rainy state of the weather, many parties have ascended this week, as has been evident at a distance from the torches glittering like glowworms on the rugged sides of Vesuvius, and from the report of friends who ascended, some observations are given as to its actual state. Starting from Naples at 8 o'clock, they got up to the Hermitage at about half-past ten o'clock, well soaked with the rain, and were by no means displeased to find an abundant " spread" laid out for another party of more provident "Britishers.'' Imagine a midnight pic-nic on Vesuvius, with pigeon pie and champagne ad libitum ! Still the rain descended in torrents, and it was not until after two o'clock in the morning that in sheer desperation they emerged from their hospitable shelter and commenced the heavy ascent of the grand cone. " Yet all our sufferiegs and fatigues," they say, " were well repaid by the grandeur of the spectacle. To the crater itself we could not reach, but as near to it as was safe we sat down on a nionticello of cinders, and watched the scene, Vesuvius shook and trembled with the efforts it was making ; it panted and roared like some gigantic furnace ; there was a sound rapid and repeated as of the discharge of a volley of musketry, and there rose to the heavens, full 1000 feet, a gorgeous mass of lava, stones both great and small, and fine ashes." As was predicted, too, at the beginning of the week, the lava is now coming down towards the Hermitage. We can mark its red and sinuous course even from Naples; and there is a promise of

greater splendour than any we liave yet witnessed. We can he;>r, too, the thunders of Nature's artillery while ■each discharge is followed by a display which it is useless to attempt to describe. Different, yet scarcely less grand, are the day effects. Volumes and volumes of dark smoke are shot up perpendicularly into the air, and then, falling and circling and rolling one over the other, file off like heavy battalions towards Capri. The column of smoke is perceptible to the eye all across the Bay, lingering horizontally until it derives a fresh impulse from each successive eruption.

NOTES AT SEA.. [From an Officer of the West India Squadron.] Barbadoes was the first of the West Indian Islands proper we touched at. Since then we have been about a (food, bit amongst the windward group ; but I'll give you an account of our doings as we proceeded. I don't recollect whether I stated that the Confederate ram, Stonewall Jackson, was lying at Barbadoes when we got in there. She was so far on her way to Japan, being sold to the Japanese by the American Government for, as I was informed, the sum of four hundred thousand dollars. A more ugly-looking object there scarce could be in form of a vessel, though there are some ships of curious shapes in the present day. Yet I suspect she would prove a for- j midable antagonist. She was manned ' by Americans, and in charge of a captain of the U.S. navy, who came on I board us as soon as we dropped anchor, ■accompanied by a Japanese nobleman in a sort of semi-uniform. AVe arrived at Barbadoes on Mocday, and left on J the following Saturday. During that j time I had a run ashore, but did not j go far into the country, so that I had 'only a superficial look at the place. I find that there is a great diffierence between the West Indies and the Coast of Africa. Here it is not so; enervating, nor do I think vegetation •acquires the growth and profusion it i •does on the African coast; neither is ' animal life so abundant; in fact, things are not so extreme as I found >thpm there. The Island of Barbadoes is well ■adapted for growing sugar-cane, which is, indeed, the staple or principal crop; and it must be profitable, for I understand that the authorities have to look after the planters to see that food for the support of those on the islands is grown. I had not seen the sugar be-1 fore ; it appears a species of grass, and is just like a tuft of grass of large size, the stem of each blade being the cane It is planted in drills about six feet apart, and when well grown is like a •thick forest on a small scale. It would be a fine place for the boys at home to play at hare and hounds in. Negroes are particularly fond of sugar-cane — man, woman, and child would, if they could, suck at it from morning till night, and probably ** all night ■through" as well. Consequently, laws against stealing the cane are severe and strictly enforced, and they had need be, for in this climate the natives can do without fire or raiment, and are averse to labor. They would be comfortable and contented if they •only lie all day in the sun, though with nought save a bit of sugar-cane to eat, and would look fat and sleek upon it. Bridgton is the largest of the West Indian towns, but you must not suppose that tropical cities are like English. If you expected to meet with fine, wide, and paved streets, with gay shop windows and solid stone houses, you would be disappointed. Those I have seen are mostly a collection of negro huts, stores, and places of business. People of means rarely live in town, so that few houses of the better sort are to be met with. Glass windows are not at all common. The houses are generally the reverse of substantial, and I fancy that the reason of their not being blown away by the hurricane is that they are so open that they offer little resistance to the wind. Barbadoes is thickly populated; the number is not far short of one thousand square miles. Leaving Barbadoes on the morning of the 14th September, we stood for the island ef Grenada, about a hundred and sixty miles distant. This is a small island, but the largest of the " Grenadines" which we sighted the same night, though we made the passage under canvas. Next day we went in and found H.M.S. . We received orders to proceed to St. Thomas, and the following morning weighed and stood for that island, which was something about five hundred miles distant. The island of Grenada is a good height, unlike Barbadoes, which is level. It struck me as being very like the sketch of mountains in an atlas, showing the comparative heights of each. I did not land, but what I could see from the ship, it was not much cultivated, owing, of course, to its being so hilly. All

the hills were covered with vegetation though not iu such gigantic proportion and profusion as in Africa, nor did I see a single palm tree, which is such a striking object, and so abundant on the African coast.

Four days' sailing took us to St. Thouias, which is the station for the West Indian mails. This island possesses an excellent harbor, which is an exception to the other islands. Except as a mail station it is otherwise little worth; it produces nothing. Steamers of all nations call and depart, distributing mails far and wide. There is a fleet of steamers collecting and distributing mails over the West Indian Islands, Guina, the G-ulf of Mexico, by the Isthmus of Panama, into the Pacific, and timed almost as punctually as the mail trains at home, In olden times St. Thomas was a stronghold of a p.rate, and there is yet the remains of a castle of a noted freebooter named or nicknamed Bluebeard. We did not make a long stay, not did I go on shore while there. The island is a Danish possession.