CHAPTER V.

MOUNT VESUVIUS IN ERUPTION.

ON reaching Naples, and re-anchoring in the Mole after seven weeks' absence, we learned that the eruption of Vesuvius had been going on for a fortnight, but that the finest exhibition of all had been on the night when we saw it from the bay of Salerno. This was not very consolatory, especially as the Neapolitans assured us the commotion was at an end for the present, a piece of information I did not altogether believe, as the smoke and flames, or what appeared to be flames, continued to issue almost constantly from the crater; and as we made sure of seeing, if not a regular eruption of lava, at least a succession of explosions of red-hot stones, which is one of the grandest fireworks in the world, the famous Girandola, on the castle of St. Angelo at Rome, not excepted-we resolved to make an expedition, and take our chance the next day, whether the volcano was in action or not.

Accordingly, at four o'clock next afternoon, we

left Naples, and drove straight to the house of Salvatore at Resina, and were so fortunate as to find this prince of guides not only disengaged, but so much in expectation of company, that his beasts were all ready saddled; and in less than a quarter of an hour we were off, under his skilful and agreeable guidance. For Salvatore is—or at all events was, and I hope still is one of the best informed persons at Naples, independently of being the most cheerful and adroit and considerate of guides. Some of us were mounted on horses, some on mules, some on donkeys, and after a charming ride of an hour-and-a-half, we reached the celebrated hermitage the inmate of which as little deserves the venerable title he bears, as did the friar of Copmanhurst in Ivanhoe. Among other incongruities of his position, this jolly personage was surrounded by a guard of soldiers, or persons dressed in uniform, one of whom accompanies every party. This troublesome appendage, we were told, was tacked on ever since a notorious robbery had been committed some years before-but our Sicilian experience led us to suspect that it was a mere subterfuge for getting more money; so as it seemed vastly pleasanter to be without a guard than with one, we gave him his fee on the express condition of his leaving the work undone. The fellow smiled an obligation so agreeable to himself, and

at

pocketing the carlin, turned us over to the robbers without any compunction.

The trip up to the base of the cone looked quite a child's play, compared to the arduous task of Mount Etna-for the path was everywhere chalked out, in most parts quite good, and the fatigue nothing at all. But the walk, or rather scramble up the cone, proved more difficult in comparison than that of Etna in the inverse proportion of the heights of the two volcanoes. This, so far as I have studied mountains of the sort, always takes place. Thus Etna,

which is more than twice as high as Vesuvius, has not half so large a cone of ashes at the top-and Teneriffe, which is some thousands of feet higher than Etna, has a much smaller cone. It would seem that the expansive forces within the volcano, having a greater perpendicular height to work through, either do not eject the ashes and scoria so far, or in so great a quantity, and consequently the conical hill at the top is small in proportion to the general elevation of the mountain. Salvatore, by help of a leather strap, aided one of the ladies, and his assistant guides, having received his orders, took the others in tow. Up we went in good spirits-but still it cost us an hour and a quarter's hard work, for nearly one half of each step was lost, owing to the softness of the footing. I forgot to mention that my

little girl being carried on the shoulders of two men, in an arm-chair, she was saved all fatigue.

As we approached the scene of action, the night became more dark, the jets of red-hot stones more and more splendid-and just before we reached the crest of the ridge, a scout, whom Salvatore had sent forward to inspect the state of the mountain, shouted out that he saw symptoms of an eruption. Accordingly, by the time we gained the summit of the wall which forms the outwork of the great external cone of all, we beheld, to our infinite joy, the lava flowing from an orifice to a considerable distance. Near the opening it was of a bright white heat, with only a slight tinge of pink. As the stream receded from the source, the pink colour gradually increased, and at some places, its surface was slightly dimmed by patches of a dark, crusty-looking matter; but as these too were red-hot, it was merely a less brilliant degree of redness, which made them distinguishable on the surface of the melted lava.

The distance of the stream was about a mile from us, yet the light which it shed all over the dreary intervening surface of the rugged top of the mountain was sufficient, I hoped, to enable us to reach it in safety. But Salvatore declared such an enterprise almost impossible, and certainly very hazardous.

As I recollected having very

nearly lost my life on the same spot, when under the same pilotage, I deferred to his authority at once, and limited the expedition to a good view of the magnificent jets of stones, which had now become almost incessant. I counted the time which some of these red-hot balls took to fall to the ground from the highest point of their ascent. The longest which I remarked was twelve seconds, from which I infer that the height to which the stone was projected must have been about 2,300 feet. Sir William Hamilton, it will be recollected, considers that the column of liquid lava which shot up in his eruption mounted 10,000 feet. And I remember seeing, at Teneriffe, immense spherical masses of lava, as big as a post-chaise, which must have been shot out of the crater to the distance of several miles; so that what we saw at Vesuvius on this occasion was no great things. The guides assured us that on the Saturday before the stones had been thrown to twice the heightbut I have no better evidence of this fact than their assertion; and as guides, like other people who are averse to being outdone, find it quite easy to stick on a handful of seconds to the time of the descent of a stone, I took the liberty of doubting their fact.

Next day I made another expedition to Vesuvius alone. Setting the heat of the sun as well as that