The San Francisco Calamity - Chapters 21-24



CHAPTER XXI. 
THE FAMOUS VESUVIUS AND THE DESTRUCTION OF POMPEII

The famous volcano of southern Italy named Vesuvius, which is now so 
constantly in eruption, was described by the ancients as a cone- shaped 
mountain with a flat top, on which was a deep circular valley filled with 
vines and grass, and surrounded by high precipices. A large population 
lived on the sides of the mountain, which was covered with beautiful 
woods, and there were fine flourishing cities at its foot. So little was 
the terrible nature of the valley on the top understood, that in A. D. 72, 
Spartacus, a rebellious Roman gladiator, encamped there with some 
thousands of fighting men, and the Roman soldiers were let down the 
precipices in order to surprise and capture them. 

There had been earthquakes around the mountain, and one of the cities had 
been nearly destroyed; but no one was prepared for what occurred seven 
years after the defeat of Spartacus. Suddenly, in the year 79 A. D., a 
terrific rush of smoke, steam, and fire belched from the mountain's 
summit; one side of the valley in which Spartacus had encamped was blown 
off, and its rocks, with vast quantities of ashes, burning stones, and 
sand, were ejected far into the sky. They then spread out like a vast 
pall, and fell far and wide. For eight days and nights this went on, and 
the enormous quantity of steam sent up, together with the deluge of rain 
that fell, produced torrents on the mountain-side, which, carrying onward 
the fallen ashes, overwhelmed everything in their way. Sulphurous vapors 
filled the air and violent tremblings of the earth were constant. 

A city six miles off was speedily rendered uninhabitable, and was 
destroyed by the falling stones; but two others--Herculaneum and Pompeii--
which already had suffered from the down-pour of ashes, were gradually 
filled with a flood of water, sand, and ashes, which came down the side of 
the volcano, and covering them entirely. 

BURIED CITIES EXCAVATED. 

The difference in ease of excavation is due to the following circumstance. 
Herculaneum being several miles nearer the crater, was buried in a far 
more consistent substance, seemingly composed of volcanic ashes cemented 
by mud; Pompeii, on the contrary, was buried only in ashes and loose 
stones. The casts of statues found in Herculaneum show the plastic 
character of the material that fell there, which time has hardened to rock-
like consistency. 

These statues represented Hercules and Cleopatra, and the theatre proved 
to be that of the long-lost city of Herculaneum. The site of Pompeii was 
not discovered until forty years afterward, but work there proved far 
easier than at Herculaneum, and more progress was made in bringing it back 
to the light of day. 

The less solid covering of Pompeii has greatly facilitated the work of 
excavation, and a great part of the city has been laid bare. Many of its 
public buildings and private residences are now visible, and some whole 
streets have been cleared, while a multitude of interesting relics have 
been found. Among those are casts of many of the inhabitants, obtained by 
pouring liquid plaster into the ash moulds that remained of them. We see 
them to- day in the attitude and with the expression of agony and horror 
with which death met them more than eighteen centuries ago. 

In succeeding eruptions much lava was poured out; and in A. D. 472, ashes 
were cast over a great part of Europe, so that much fear was caused at 
Constantinople. The buried cities were more and more covered up, and it 
was not until about A. D. 1700 that, as above stated, the city of 
Herculaneum was discovered, the peasants of the vicinity being in the 
habit of extracting marble from its ruins. They had also, in the course of 
years, found many statues. In consequence, an excavation was ordered by 
Charles III, the earliest result being the discovery of the theatre, with 
the statues above named. The work of excavation, however, has not 
progressed far in this city, on account of its extreme difficulty, though 
various excellent specimens of art-work have been discovered, including 
the finest examples of mural painting extant from antiquity. The library 
was also discovered, 1803 papyri being found. Though these had been 
charred to cinder, and were very difficult to unroll and decipher, over 
300 of them have been read. 

PLINY'S CELEBRATED DESCRIPTION 

Pliny the Younger, to whom we are indebted for the only contemporary 
account of the great eruption under consideration, was at the time of its 
occurrence resident with his mother at Misenum, where the Roman fleet lay, 
under the command of his uncle, the great author of the "Historia 
Naturalis". His account, contained in two letters to Tacitus (lib. vi. 16, 
20), is not so much a narrative of the eruption, as a record of his 
uncle's singular death, yet it is of great interest as yielding the 
impressions of an observer. The translation which follows is adopted from 
the very free version of Melmoth, except in one or two places, where it 
differs much from the ordinary text. The letters are given entire, though 
some parts are rather specimens of style than good examples of 
description. 

"Your request that I should send an account of my uncle's death, in order 
to transmit a more exact relation of it to posterity, deserves my 
acknowledgments; for if this accident shall be celebrated by your pen, the 
glory of it, I am assured, will be rendered forever illustrious. And, 
notwithstanding he perished by a misfortune which, as it involved at the 
same time a most beautiful country in ruins, and destroyed so many 
populous cities, seems to promise him an everlasting remembrance; 
notwithstanding he has himself composed many and lasting works; yet I am 
persuaded the mention of him in your immortal works will greatly 
contribute to eternize his name. Happy I esteem those to be, whom 
Providence has distinguished with the abilities either of doing such 
actions as are worthy of being related, or of relating them in a manner 
worthy of being read; but doubly happy are they who are blessed with both 
these talents; in the number of which my uncle, as his own writings and 
your history will prove, may justly be ranked. It is with extreme 
willingness, therefore, that I execute your commands; and should, indeed, 
have claimed the task if you had not enjoined it. 

"He was at that time with the fleet under his command at Misenum. On the 
24th of August, about one in the afternoon, my mother desired him to 
observe a cloud which appeared of a very unusual size and shape. He had 
just returned from taking the benefit of the sun, and, after bathing 
himself in cold water, and taking a slight repast, had retired to his 
study. He immediately arose, and went out upon an eminence, from whence he 
might more distinctly view this very uncommon appearance. It was not at 
that distance discernible from what mountain the cloud issued, but it was 
found afterward to ascend from Mount Vesuvius. I cannot give a more exact 
description of its figure than by comparing it to that of a pine tree, for 
it shot up to a great height in the form of a trunk, which extended itself 
at the top into a sort of branches; occasioned, I imagine, either by a 
sudden gust of air that impelled it, the force of which decreased as it 
advanced upwards, or the cloud itself being pressed back again by its own 
weight, and expanding in this manner: it appeared sometimes bright, and 
sometimes dark and spotted, as it was more or less impregnated with earth 
and cinders. 

"This extraordinary phenomenon excited my uncle's philosophical curiosity 
to take a nearer view of it. He ordered a light vessel to be got ready, 
and gave me the liberty, if I thought proper, to attend him. I rather 
chose to continue my studies, for, as it happened, he had given me an 
employment of that kind. As he was passing out of the house he received 
dispatches: the marines at Retina, terrified at the imminent peril (for 
the place lay beneath the mountain, and there was no retreat but by 
ships), entreated his aid in this extremity. He accordingly changed his 
first design, and what he began with a philosophical he pursued with an 
heroical turn of mind. 

THE VOYAGE TO STABIAE 

"He ordered the galleys to put to sea, and went himself on board with an 
intention of assisting not only Retina but many other places, for the 
population is thick on that beautiful coast. When hastening to the place 
from whence others fled with the utmost terror, he steered a direct course 
to the point of danger, and with so much calmness and presence of mind, as 
to be able to make and dictate his observations upon the motion and figure 
of that dreadful scene. He was now so nigh the mountain that the cinders, 
which grew thicker and hotter the nearer he approached, fell into the 
ships, together with pumice-stones, and black pieces of burning rock; they 
were in danger of not only being left aground by the sudden retreat of the 
sea, but also from the vast fragments which rolled down from the mountain, 
and obstructed all the shore. 

"Here he stopped to consider whether he should return back again; to which 
the pilot advised him. 'Fortune,' said he, 'favors the brave; carry me to 
Pomponianus.' Pomponianus was then at Stabiae, separated by a gulf, which 
the sea, after several insensible windings, forms upon the shore. He 
(Pomponianus) had already sent his baggage on board; for though he was not 
at that time in actual danger, yet being within view of it, and indeed 
extremely near, if it should in the least increase, he was determined to 
put to sea as soon as the wind should change. It was favorable, however, 
for carrying my uncle to Pomponianus, whom he found in the greatest 
consternation. He embraced him with tenderness, encouraging and exhorting 
him to keep up his spirits; and the more to dissipate his fears he 
ordered, with an air of unconcern, the baths to be got ready; when, after 
having bathed, he sat down to supper with great cheerfulness, or at least 
(what is equally heroic) with all the appearance of it. 

"In the meantime, the eruption from Mount Vesuvius flamed out in several 
places with much violence, which the darkness of the night contributed to 
render still more visible and dreadful. But my uncle, in order to soothe 
the apprehensions of his friend, assured him it was only the burning of 
the villages, which the country people had abandoned to the flames; after 
this he retired to rest, and it was most certain he was so little 
discomposed as to fall into a deep sleep; for, being pretty fat, and 
breathing hard, those who attended without actually heard him snore. The 
court which led to his apartment being now almost filled with stones and 
ashes, if he had continued there any longer it would have been impossible 
for him to have made his way out; it was thought proper, therefore, to 
awaken him. He got up and went to Pomponianus and the rest of his company, 
who were not unconcerned enough to think of going to bed. They consulted 
together whether it would be most prudent to trust to the houses, which 
now shook from side to side with frequent and violent concussions; or to 
fly to the open fields, where the calcined stone and cinders, though light 
indeed, yet fell in large showers and threatened destruction. In this 
distress they resolved for the fields as the less dangerous situation of 
the two--a resolution which, while the rest of the company were hurried 
into it by their fears, my uncle embraced upon cool and deliberate 
consideration. 

DEATH OF PLINY THE ELDER 

"They went out, then, having pillows tied upon their heads with napkins; 
and this was their whole defence against the storm of stones that fell 
around them. It was now day everywhere else, but there a deeper darkness 
prevailed than in the most obscure night; which, however, was in some 
degree dissipated by torches and other lights of various kinds. They 
thought proper to go down further upon the shore, to observe if they might 
safely put out to sea; but they found that the waves still ran extremely 
high and boisterous. There my uncle, having drunk a draught or two of cold 
water, threw himself down upon a cloth which was spread for him, when 
immediately the flames, and a strong smell of sulphur which was the 
forerunner of them, dispersed the rest of the company, and obliged him to 
rise. He raised himself up with the assistance of two of his servants, and 
instantly fell down dead, suffocated, as I conjecture, by some gross and 
noxious vapor, having always had weak lungs, and being frequently subject 
to a difficulty of breathing. 

"As soon as it was light again, which was not till the third day after 
this melancholy accident, his body was found entire, and without any marks 
of violence upon it, exactly in the same posture as that in which he fell, 
and looking more like a man asleep than dead. During all this time my 
mother and I were at Misenum. But this has no connection with your 
history, as your inquiry went no farther than concerning my uncle's death; 
with that, therefore, I will put an end to my letter. Suffer me only to 
add, that I have faithfully related to you what I was either an eye-
witness of myself, or received immediately after the accident happened, 
and before there was any time to vary the truth. You will choose out of 
this narrative such circumstances as shall be most suitable to your 
purpose; for there is a great difference between what is proper for a 
letter and a history: between writing to a friend and writing to the 
public. Farewell." 

In this account, which was drawn up some years after the event, from the 
recollections of a student eighteen years old, we recognize the continual 
earthquakes; the agitated sea with its uplifted bed; the flames and vapors 
of an ordinary eruption, probably attended by lava as well as ashes. But 
it seems likely that the author's memory, or rather the information 
communicated to him regarding the closing scene of Pliny's life, was 
defective. Flames and sulphurous vapors could hardly be actually present 
at Stabiae, ten miles from the centre of the eruption. 

That lava flowed at all from Vesuvius on this occasion has been usually 
denied; chiefly because at Pompeii and Herculaneum the causes of 
destruction were different--ashes overwhelmed the former, mud concreted 
over the latter. We observe, indeed, phenomena on the shore near Torre del 
Greco which seem to require the belief that currents of lava had been 
solidified there at some period before the construction of certain walls 
and floors, and other works of Roman date. In the Oxford Museum, among the 
specimens of lava to which the dates are assigned, is one referred to A. 
D. 79, but there is no mode of proving it to have belonged to the eruption 
of that date. 

PLINY'S SECOND LETTER 

A second letter from Pliny to Tacitus (Epist. 20) was required to satisfy 
the curiosity of that historian; especially as regards the events which 
happened under the eyes of his friend. Here it is according to Melmoth: 

"The letter which, in compliance with your request, I wrote to you 
concerning the death of my uncle, has raised, it seems, your curiosity to 
know what terrors and danger attended me while I continued at Misenum: for 
there, I think, the account in my former letter broke off. 

'Though my shocked soul recoils, my tongue shall tell.' 

"My uncle having left us, I pursued the studies which prevented my going 
with him till it was time to bathe. After which I went to supper, and from 
thence to bed, where my sleep was greatly broken and disturbed. There had 
been, for many days before, some shocks of an earthquake, which the less 
surprised us as they are extremely frequent in Campania; but they were so 
particularly violent that night, that they not only shook everything about 
us, but seemed, indeed, to threaten total destruction. My mother flew to 
my chamber, where she found me rising in order to awaken her. We went out 
into a small court belonging to the house, which separated the sea from 
the buildings. As I was at that time but eighteen years of age, I know not 
whether I should call my behavior, in this dangerous juncture, courage or 
rashness; but I took up Livy, and amused myself with turning over that 
author, and even making extracts from him, as if all about me had been in 
full security. While we were in this posture, a friend of my uncle's, who 
was just come from Spain to pay him a visit, joined us; and observing me 
sitting with my mother with a book in my hand, greatly condemned her 
calmness at the same time that he reproved me for my careless security. 
Nevertheless, I still went on with my author. 

"Though it was now morning, the light was exceedingly faint and languid; 
the buildings all around us tottered; and, though we stood upon open 
ground, yet as the place was narrow and confined, there was no remaining 
there without certain and great danger: we therefore resolved to quit the 
town. The people followed us in the utmost consternation, and, as to a 
mind distracted with terror every suggestion seems more prudent than its 
own, pressed in great crowds about us in our way out. 

"Being got to a convenient distance from the houses, we stood still, in 
the midst of a most dangerous and dreadful scene. The chariots which we 
had ordered to be drawn out were so agitated backwards and forwards, 
though upon the most level ground, that we could not keep them steady, 
even by supporting them with large stones. The sea seemed to roll back 
upon itself, and to be driven from its banks by the convulsive motion of 
the earth; it is certain at least that the shore was considerably 
enlarged, and many sea animals were left upon it. On the other side a 
black and dreadful cloud, bursting with an igneous serpentine vapor, 
darted out a long train of fire, resembling flashes of lightning, but much 
larger. 

FEAR VERSUS COMPOSURE 

"Upon this the Spanish friend whom I have mentioned, addressed himself to 
my mother and me with great warmth and earnestness; 'If your brother and 
your uncle,' said he, 'is safe, he certainly wishes you to be so too; but 
if he has perished, it was his desire, no doubt, that you might both 
survive him: why therefore do you delay your escape a moment?' We could 
never think of our own safety, we said, while we were uncertain of his. 
Hereupon our friend left us, and withdrew with the utmost precipitation. 
Soon afterward, the cloud seemed to descend, and cover the whole ocean; as 
it certainly did the island of Capreae, and the promontory of Misenum. My 
mother strongly conjured me to make my escape at any rate, which, as I was 
young, I might easily do; as for herself, she said, her age and corpulency 
rendered all attempts of that sort impossible. However, she would 
willingly meet death, if she could have the satisfaction of seeing that 
she was not the occasion of mine. But I absolutely refused to leave her, 
and taking her by the hand, I led her on; she complied with great 
reluctance, and not without many reproaches to herself for retarding my 
flight. 

"The ashes now began to fall upon us, though in no great quantity. I 
turned my head and observed behind us a thick smoke, which came rolling 
after us like a torrent. I proposed, while we yet had any light, to turn 
out of the high road lest she should be pressed to death in the dark by 
the crowd that followed us. We had scarce stepped out of the path when 
darkness overspread us, not like that of a cloudy night, or when there is 
no moon, but of a room when it is all shut up and all the lights are 
extinct. Nothing then was to be heard but the shrieks of women, the 
screams of children and the cries of men; some calling for their children, 
others for their parents, others for their husbands, and only 
distinguishing each other by their voices; one lamenting his own fate, 
another that of his family; some wishing to die from the very fear of 
dying; some lifting their hands to the gods; but the greater part 
imagining that the last and eternal night was come, which was to destroy 
the gods and the world together. Among them were some who augmented the 
real terrors by imaginary ones, and made the frighted multitude believe 
that Misenum was actually in flames. 

"At length a glimmering light appeared, which we imagined to be rather the 
forerunner of an approaching burst of flames, as in truth it was, than the 
return of day. However, the fire fell at distance from us; then again we 
were immersed in thick darkness, and a heavy shower of ashes rained upon 
us, which we were obliged every now and then to shake off, otherwise we 
should have been crushed and buried in the heap. 

"I might boast that, during all this scene of horror, not a sigh or 
expression of fear escaped me, had not my support been founded in that 
miserable, though strong, consolation that all mankind were involved in 
the same calamity, and that I imagined I was perishing with the world 
itself! At last this dreadful darkness was dissipated by degrees, like a 
cloud of smoke; the real day returned, and soon the sun appeared, though 
very faintly, and as when an eclipse is coming on. Every object that 
presented itself to our eyes (which were extremely weakened) seemed 
changed, being covered over with white ashes, as with a deep snow. We 
returned to Misenum, where we refreshed ourselves as well as we could, and 
passed an anxious night between hope and fear, for the earthquake still 
continued, while several greatly excited people ran up and down, 
heightening their own and their friends' calamities by terrible 
predictions. However, my mother and I, notwithstanding the danger we had 
passed and that which still threatened us, had no thoughts of leaving the 
place till we should receive some account from my uncle. 

"And now you will read this narrative without any view of inserting it in 
your history, of which it is by no means worthy; and, indeed, you must 
impute it to your own request if it shall not even deserve the trouble of 
a letter. Farewell!" 

DION CASSIUS ON THE ERUPTION 

The story told by Pliny is the only one upon which we can rely. Dion 
Cassius, the historian, who wrote more than a century later, does not 
hesitate to use his imagination, telling us that Pompeii was buried under 
showers of ashes "while all the people were sitting in the theatre." This 
statement has been effectively made use of by Bulwer, in his "Last Days of 
Pompeii." In this he pictures for us a gladiatorial combat in the arena, 
with thousands of deeply interested spectators occupying the surrounding 
seats. The novelist works his story up to a thrilling climax in which the 
volcano plays a leading part. 

This is all very well as a vivid piece of fiction, but it does not accord 
with fact, since Dion Cassius was undoubtedly incorrect in his statement. 
We now know from the evidence furnished by the excavations that none of 
the people were destroyed in the theatres, and, indeed, that there were 
very few who did not escape from both cities. It is very likely that many 
of them returned and dug down for the most valued treasures in their 
buried habitations. Dion Cassius may have obtained the material for his 
accounts from the traditions of the descendants of survivors, and if so he 
shows how terrible must have been the impression made upon their minds. He 
assures us that during the eruption a multitude of men of superhuman 
nature appeared, sometimes on the mountain and sometimes in the environs, 
that stones and smoke were thrown out, the sun was hidden, and then the 
giants seemed to rise again, while the sounds of trumpets were heard. 

LAKE AVERNUS 

Not far from Vesuvius lay the famous Lake Avernus, whose name was long a 
popular synonym for the infernal regions. The lake is harmless to-day, but 
its reputation indicates that it was not always so. There is every reason 
to believe that it hides the outlet of an extinct volcano, and that long 
after the volcano ceased to be active it emitted gases as fatal to animal 
life as those suffocating vapors which annihilated all the cattle on the 
Island of Lancerote, in the Canaries, in the year 1730. Its name signifies 
"birdless," indicating that its ascending vapors were fatal to all birds 
that attempted to fly above its surface. 

In the superstition of the Middle Ages Vesuvius assumed the character 
which had before been given to Avernus, and was regarded as the mouth of 
hell. Cardinal Damiano, in a letter to Pope Nicholas II., written about 
the year 1060 tells the story of how a priest, who had left his mother ill 
at Beneventum, went on his homeward way to Naples past the crater of 
Vesuvius, and heard issuing therefrom the voice of his mother in great 
agony. He afterward found that her death coincided exactly with the time 
at which he had heard her voice. 

A trip to the summit of Vesuvius is one of the principal attractions for 
strangers who are visiting Naples. There is a fascination about that awful 
slayer of cities which few can resist, and no less attractive is the city 
of Pompeii, now largely laid bare after being buried for eighteen 
centuries. We are indebted to Henry Haynie for the following interesting 
description: "Once seen, it will never be forgotten. It is full of 
suggestions. It kindles emotions that are worth the kindling, and brings 
on dreams that are worth the dreaming. Of the three places overwhelmed, 
Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabiae, the last scarcely repays excavation in 
one sense, and the first in another; but to watch the diggers at Pompeii 
is fascinating, even when there is no reasonable expectation of a find. 
Herculaneum was buried with lava, or rather with tufa, and it is so very 
hard that the expense of uncovering of only a small part of that city has 
been very great. 

HOW POMPEII IMPRESSES ITS VISITORS 

"Pompeii was smothered in ashes, however, and most of it is uncovered now. 
But while there is much that is fascinating, and all of it is instructive, 
there is nothing grand or awe-inspiring in the ruins of Pompeii. No 
visitor stands breathless as in the great hall of Karnak or in the once 
dreadful Coliseum at Rome, or dreams with sensuous delight as before the 
Jasmine Court at Agra. 

"The weirdness of the scene possesses us as a haunted chamber might. We 
have before us the narrow lanes, paved with tufa, in which Roman wagon 
wheels have worn deep ruts. We cross streets on stepping-stones which 
sandaled feet ages ago polished. We see the wine shops with empty jars, 
counters stained with liquor, stone mills where the wheat was ground, and 
the very ovens in which bread was baked more than eighteen centuries ago. 
'Welcome' is offered us at one silent, broken doorway; at another we are 
warned to 'Beware of the dog!' The painted figures,--some of them so 
artistic and rich in colors that pictures of them are disbelieved,-- the 
mosaic pavements, the empty fountains, the altars and household gods, the 
marble pillars and the small gardens are there just as the owners left 
them. Some of the walls are scribbled over by the small boys of Pompeii in 
strange characters which mock modern erudition. In places we read the 
advertisements of gladiatorial shows, never to come off, the names of 
candidates for legislative office who were never to sit. There is nothing 
like this elsewhere. 

"The value of Pompeii to those classic students who would understand, not 
the speech only, but the life and the every-day habits, of the ancient 
world, is too high for reckoning. Its inestimable evidence may be seen in 
the fact that any high-school boy can draw the plan of a Roman house, 
while ripest scholars hesitate on the very threshold of a Greek dwelling. 
This is because no Hellenic Pompeii has yet been discovered, but thanks to 
the silent city close to the beautiful Bay of Naples, the Latin house is 
known from ostium to porticus, from the front door to the back garden 
wall. 

STREETS AND HOUSES OF POMPEII 

"The streets of Pompeii must have had a charm unapproached by those of any 
city now in existence. The stores, indeed, were wretched little dens. Two 
or three of them commonly occupied the front of a house on either side of 
the entrance, the ostium; but when the door lay open, as was usually the 
case, a passerby could look into the atrium, prettily decorated and hung 
with rich stuffs. The sunshine entered through an aperture in the roof, 
and shone on the waters of the impluvium, the mosaic floor, the altar of 
the household gods and the flowers around the fountain. 

"As the life of the Pompeiians was all outdoors, their pretty homes stood 
open always. There was indeed a curtain betwixt the atrium and the 
peristyle, but it was drawn only when the master gave a banquet. Thus a 
wayfarer in the street could see, beyond the hall described and its busy 
servants, the white columns of the peristyle, with creepers trained about 
them, flowers all around, and jets of water playing through pipes which 
are still in place. In many cases the garden itself could be observed 
between the pillars of the further gallery, and rich paintings on the wall 
beyond that. 

"But how far removed those little palaces of Pompeii were from our notion 
of well-being is scarcely to be understood by one who has not seen them. 
It is a question strange in all points of view where the family slept in 
the houses, nearly all of which had no second story. In the most graceful 
villas the three to five sleeping chambers round the atrium and four round 
the peristyle were rather ornamental cupboards than aught else. One did 
not differ from another, and if these were devoted to the household the 
slaves, male and female, must have slept on the floor outside. The master, 
his family and his guest used these small, dark rooms, which were 
apparently without such common luxuries as we expect in the humblest home. 
All their furniture could hardly have been more than a bed and a 
footstool; but it should be remembered that the public bath was a daily 
amusement. The kitchen of each villa certainly was not furnished with such 
ingenuity, expense or thought as the stories of Roman gormandising would 
have led us to expect. In the house of the Aedile--so called from the fact 
that 'Pansam Aed.' is inscribed in red characters by the doorway--the cook 
seems to have been employed in frying eggs at the moment when increasing 
danger put him to flight. His range, four partitions of brick, was very 
small; a knife, a strainer, a pan lay by the fire just as they fell from 
the slave's hand." 

VALUE OF THE DISCOVERY OF POMPEII 

This description strongly presents to us the principal value of the 
discovery of Pompeii. Interesting as are the numerous works of art found 
in its habitations, and important as is their bearing upon some branches 
of the art of the ancient world, this cannot compare in interest with the 
flood of light which is here thrown on ancient life in all its details, 
enabling us to picture to ourselves the manners and habits of life of a 
cultivated and flourishing population at the beginning of the Christian 
era, to an extent which no amount of study of ancient history could yield. 

Looking upon the work of the volcano as essentially destructive, as we 
naturally do, we have here a valuable example of its power as a 
preservative agent; and it is certainly singular that it is to a volcano 
we owe much of what we know concerning the cities, dwellings and domestic 
life of the people of the Roman Empire. 

It would be very fortunate for students of antiquity if similar disasters 
had happened to cities in other ancient civilized lands, however 
unfortunate it might have been to their inhabitants. But doubtless we are 
better off without knowledge gained from ruins thus produced. 



CHAPTER XXII. 
ERUPTIONS OF VESUVIUS, ETNA AND STROMBOLI

Mount Vesuvius is of especial interest as being the only active volcano on 
the continent of Europe--all others of that region being on the islands of 
the Mediterranean--and for the famous ancient eruption described in the 
last chapter. Before this it had borne the reputation of being extinct, 
but since then it has frequently shown that its fires have not burned out, 
and has on several occasions given a vigorous display of its powers. 

During the fifteen hundred years succeeding the destructive event 
described eruptions were of occasional occurrence, though of no great 
magnitude. But throughout the long intervals when Vesuvius was at rest it 
was noted that Etna and Ischia were more or less disturbed. 

THE BIRTH OF MONTE NUOVO 

In 1538 a startling evidence was given that there was no decline of energy 
in the volcanic system of Southern Italy. This was the sudden birth of the 
mountain still known as Monte Nuovo, or New Mountain, which was thrown up 
in the Campania near Avernus, on the spot formerly occupied by the Lucrine 
Lake. 

For about two years prior to this event the district had been disturbed by 
earthquakes, which on September 27 and 28, 1538, became almost continuous. 
The low shore was slightly elevated, so that the sea retreated, leaving 
bare a strip about two hundred feet in width. The surface cracked, steam 
escaped, and at last, early on the morning of the 29th, a greater rent was 
made, from which were vomited furiously "smoke, fire, stones and mud 
composed of ashes, making at the time of its opening a noise like the 
loudest thunder." 

The ejected material in less than twelve hours built the hill which has 
lasted substantially in the same form to our day. It is a noteworthy fact 
that since the formation of Monte Nuovo there has been no volcanic 
disturbance in any part of the Neapolitan district except in Vesuvius, 
which for five centuries previous had remained largely at rest. 

LAVA FROM VESUVIUS 

The first recognised appearance of lava in the eruptions of Vesuvius was 
in the violent eruption of 1036. This was succeeded at intervals by five 
other outbreaks, none of them of great energy. After 1500 the crater 
became completely quiet, the whole mountain in time being grown over with 
luxuriant vegetation, while by the next century the interior of the crater 
became green with shrubbery, indicating that no injurious gases were 
escaping. 

This was sleep, not death. In 1631 the awakening came in an eruption of 
terrible violence. Almost in a moment the green mantle of woodland and 
shrubbery was torn away and death and destruction left where peace and 
safety had seemed assured. 

Seven streams of lava poured from the crater and swept rapidly down the 
mountain side, leaving ruin along their paths. Resina, Granasello and 
Torre del Greco, three villages that had grown up during the period of 
quiescence, were more or less overwhelmed by the molten lava. Great 
torrents of hot water also poured out, adding to the work of desolation. 
It was estimated that eighteen thousand of the inhabitants were killed. 

What made the horror all the greater was a frightful error of judgment, 
similar to that of the Governor of Martinique at St. Pierre. The Governor 
of Torre del Greco had refused to be warned in time, and prevented the 
people from making their escape until it was too late. Not until the lava 
had actually reached the walls was the order for departure given. Before 
the order could be acted upon the molten streams burst through the walls 
into the crowded streets, and overwhelmed the vast majority of the 
inhabitants. 

In this violent paroxysm the whole top of the mountain is said to have 
been swept away, the new crater which took the place of the old one being 
greatly lowered. From that date Vesuvius has never been at rest for any 
long interval, and eruptions of some degree of violence have been rarely 
more than a few years apart. Of its various later manifestations of energy 
we select for description that of 1767, of which an interesting account by 
a careful observer is extant. 

GREAT ERUPTION OF 1767 

From the 10th of December, 1766, to March, 1767, Vesuvius was quiet; then 
it began to throw up stones from time to time. In April the throws were 
more frequent, and at night the red glare grew stronger on the cloudy 
columns which hung over the crater. These repeated throws of cinders, 
ashes and pumice-stones so much increased the small cone of eruption which 
had been left in the centre of the flat crateral space that its top became 
visible at a distance. 

On the 7th of August there issued a small stream of lava from a breach in 
the side of a small cone; the lava gradually filled the space between the 
cone and the crateral edge; on the 12th of September it overflowed the 
crater, and ran down the mountain. Stones were ejected which took ten 
seconds in their fall, from which it may be computed that the height which 
the stones reached was 1,600 feet. Padre Torre, a great observer of 
Vesuvius, says they went up above a thousand feet. The lava ceased on the 
18th of October, but at 8 A. M. on the 19th it rushed out at a different 
place, after volleys of stones had been thrown to an immense height, and 
the huge traditional pine-tree of smoke reappeared. On this occasion that 
vast phantom extended its menacing shadow over Capri, at a distance of 
twenty-eight miles from Vesuvius. 

The lava at first came out of a mouth about one hundred yards below the 
crater, on the side toward Monte Somma. While occupied in viewing this 
current, the observer heard a violent noise within the mountain; saw it 
split open at the distance of a quarter of a mile, and saw from the new 
mouth a mountain of liquid fire shoot up many feet, and then, like a 
torrent, roll on toward him. The earth shook; stones fell thick around 
him; dense clouds of ashes darkened the air; loud thunders came from the 
mountain top, and he took to precipitate flight. The Padre's account is 
too lively and instructive for his own words to be omitted. 

PADRE TORRE'S NARRATIVE 

"I was making my observations upon the lava, which had already, from the 
spot where it first broke out, reached the valley, when, on a sudden, 
about noon, I heard a violent noise within the mountain, and at a spot 
about a quarter of a mile off the place where I stood the mountain split; 
and with much noise, from this new mouth, a fountain of liquid fire shot 
up many feet high, and then like a torrent rolled on directly towards us. 
The earth shook at the same time that a volley of stones fell thick upon 
us; in an instant clouds of black smoke and ashes caused almost a total 
darkness; the explosions from the top of the mountain were much louder 
than any thunder I ever heard, and the smell of the sulphur was very 
offensive. My guide, alarmed, took to his heels; and I must confess that I 
was not at my ease. I followed close, and we ran near three miles without 
stopping; as the earth continued to shake under our feet, I was 
apprehensive of the opening of a fresh mouth which might have cut off our 
retreat. 

"I also feared that the violent explosions would detach some of the rocks 
off the mountain of Somma, under which we were obliged to pass; besides, 
the pumice-stones, falling upon us like hail, were of such a size as to 
cause a disagreeable sensation in the part upon which they fell. After 
having taken breath, as the earth trembled greatly I thought it most 
prudent to leave the mountain and return to my villa, where I found my 
family in great alarm at the continual and violent explosions of the 
volcano, which shook our house to its very foundation, the doors and 
windows swinging upon their hinges. 

"About two of the clock in the afternoon (19th) another lava stream forced 
its way out of the same place from whence came the lava of last year, so 
that the conflagration was soon as great on this side of the mountain as 
on the other which I had just left. I observed on my way to Naples, which 
was in less than two hours after I had left the mountain, that the lava 
had actually covered three miles of the very road through which we had 
retreated. This river of lava in the Atrio del Cavallo was sixty or 
seventy feet deep, and in some places nearly two miles broad. Besides the 
explosions, which were frequent, there was a continued subterranean and 
violent rumbling noise, which lasted five hours in the night,--supposed to 
arise from contact of the lava with rain-water lodged in cavities within. 
The whole neighborhood was shaken violently; Portici and Naples were in 
the extremity of alarm; the churches were filled; the streets were 
thronged with processions of saints, and various ceremonies were performed 
to quell the fury of the mountain. 

"In the night of the 20th, the occasion being critical, the prisoners in 
the public jail attempted to escape, and the mob set fire to the gates of 
the residence of the Cardinal Archbishop because he refused to bring out 
the relics of St. Januarius. The 21st was a quieter day, but the whole 
violence of the eruption returned on the 22d, at 10 A. M., with the same 
thundering noise, but more violent and alarming. Ashes fell in abundance 
in the streets of Naples, covering the housetops and balconies an inch 
deep. Ships at sea, twenty leagues from Naples, were covered with them. 

"In the midst of these horrors, the mob, growing tumultuous and impatient, 
obliged the Cardinal to bring out the head of St. Januarius, at the 
extremity of Naples, toward Vesuvius; and it is well attested here that 
the eruption ceased the moment the saint came in sight of the mountain. It 
is true the noise ceased about that time after having lasted five hours, 
as it had done the preceding days. 

"On the 23d the lava still ran, but on the 24th it ceased; but smoke 
continued. On the 25th there rose a vast column of black smoke, giving out 
much forked lightning with thunder, in a sky quite clear except for the 
smoke of the volcano. On the 26th smoke continued, but on the 27th the 
eruption came to an end." 

This eruption was also described by Sir William Hamilton, who continued to 
keep a close watch on the movements of the volcano for many years. The 
next outbreak of especial violence took place in 1779, when what seemed to 
the eye a column of fire ascended two miles high, while cinder fragments 
fell far and wide, destroying the hopes of harvest throughout a wide 
district. They fell in abundance thirty miles distant, and the dust of the 
explosion was carried a hundred miles away. 

In 1793 the crater became active again, and in 1794 after a period of 
short tranquillity or comparative inaction, the mountain again became 
agitated, and one of the most formidable eruptions known in the history of 
Vesuvius began. It was in some respects unlike many others, being somewhat 
peculiar as to the place of its outburst, the temperature of the lava, and 
the course of the current. Breislak, an Italian geologist, observed the 
characteristic phenomena with the eye of science, and his account supplies 
many interesting facts. 

BREISLAK ON THE ERUPTION OF 1794 

Breislak remarked certain changes in the character of the earth's motions 
during this six hours' eruption, which led him to some particular 
conjecture of the cause. At the beginning the trembling was continual, and 
accompanied by a hollow noise, similar to that occasioned by a river 
falling into a subterranean cavern. The lava, at the time of its being 
disgorged, from the impetuous and uninterrupted manner in which it was 
ejected, causing it to strike violently against the walls of the vent, 
occasioned a continual oscillation of the mountain. Toward the middle of 
the night this vibratory motion ceased, and was succeeded by distant 
shocks. The fluid mass, diminished in quantity, now pressed less violently 
against the walls of the aperture, and no longer issued in a continual and 
gushing stream, but only at intervals, when the interior fermentation 
elevated the boiling matter above the mouth. About 4 A. M. the shocks 
began to be less numerous, and the intervals between them rendered their 
force and duration more perceptible. 

During this tremendous eruption at the base of the Vesuvian cone, and the 
fearful earthquakes which accompanied it, the summit was tranquil. The sky 
was serene, the stars were brilliant, and only over Vesuvius hung a thick, 
dark smoke-cloud, lighted up into an auroral arch by the glare of a stream 
of fire more than two miles long, and more than a quarter of a mile broad. 
The sea was calm, and reflected the red glare; while from the source of 
the lava came continual jets of uprushing incandescent stones. Nearer to 
view, Torre del Greco in flames, and clouds of black smoke, with falling 
houses, presented a dark and tragical foreground, heightened by the 
subterranean thunder of the mountain, and the groans and lamentations of 
fifteen thousand ruined men, women and children. 

The heavy clouds of ashes which were thrown out on this occasion gathered 
in the early morning into a mighty shadow over Naples and the 
neighborhood; the sun rose pale and obscure, and a long, dim twilight 
reigned afterward. 

Such were the phenomena on the western side of Vesuvius. They were matched 
by others on the eastern aspect, not visible at Naples, except by 
reflection of their light in the atmosphere. The lava on this side flowed 
eastward, along a route often traversed by lava, by the broken crest of 
the Cognolo and the valley of Sorienta. The extreme length to which this 
current reached was not less than an Italian mile. The cubic content was 
estimated to be half that already assigned to the western currents. Taken 
together they amounted to 20,744,445 cubic metres, or 2,804,440 cubic 
fathoms; the constitution of the lava being the same in each, both 
springing from one deep-seated reservoir of fluid rock. 

The eruption of lava ceased on the 16th, and then followed heavy 
discharges of ashes, violent shocks of earthquakes, thunder and lightning 
in the columns of vapors and ashes, and finally heavy rains, lasting till 
the 3d of July. The barometer during all the eruption was steady. 

Breislak made an approximate calculation of the quantity of ashes which 
fell on Vesuvius during this great eruption, and states the result as 
equal to what would cover a circular area 6 kilometres (about 3 1/2 
English miles) in radius, and 39 centimetres (about 15 inches) in depth. 

STRANGE EFFECTS 

Among the notable things which attended this eruption, it is recorded that 
in Torre del Greco metallic and other substances exposed to the current 
were variously affected. Silver was melted, glass became porcelain, iron 
swelled to four times its volume and lost its texture. Brass was 
decomposed, and its constituent copper crystallized in cubic and 
octahedral forms aggregated in beautiful branches. Zinc was sometimes 
turned to blende. During the eruption, the lip of the crater toward Bosco 
Tre Case on the south east, fell in, or was thrown off, and the height of 
that part was reduced 426 feet. 

On the 17th, the sea was found in a boiling state 100 yards off the new 
promontory made by the lava of Torre del Greco, and no boat could remain 
near it on account of the melting of the pitch in her bottom. For nearly a 
month after the eruption vast quantities of fine white ashes, mixed with 
volumes of steam, were thrown out from the crater; the clouds thus 
generated were condensed into heavy rain, and large tracts of the Vesuvian 
slopes were deluged with volcanic mud. It filled ravines, such as Fosso 
Grande, and concreted and hardened there into pumiceous tufa--a very 
instructive phenomenon. 

Immense injury was done to the rich territory of Somma, Ottajano and Bosco 
by heavy rains, which swept along cinders, broke up the road and bridges, 
and overturned trees and houses for the space of fifteen days. 

There were few years during the nineteenth century in which Vesuvius did 
not show symptoms of its internal fires, and at intervals it manifested 
much activity, though not equaling the terrible eruptions of its past 
history. The severest eruptions in that century were those of 1871 and 
1876. In the first a sudden emission of lava killed twenty spectators at 
the mouth of the crater, and only spent its fury after San Sebastian and 
Massa had been well nigh annihilated. Fragments of rock were thrown up to 
the height of 4,000 feet, and the explosions were so violent that the 
whole countryside fled panic stricken to Naples. The activity of the 
volcano, accompanied by distinct shocks of earthquake, lasted for a week. 

In 1876, for three weeks together, lava streamed down the side of 
Vesuvius, sweeping away the village of Cercolo and running nearly to the 
sea at Ponte Maddaloni. There were then formed ten small craters within 
the greater one. But these were united by a later eruption in 1888, and 
pressure from beneath formed a vast cone where they had been. 

HARDIHOOD OF THE PEOPLE 

It may seem strange that so dangerous a neighborhood should be inhabited. 
But so it is. Though Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae lie buried beneath 
the mud and ashes belched out of the mouth of Vesuvius, the villages of 
Portici and Revina, Torre del Greco and Torre del Annunziata have taken 
their place, and a large population, cheerful and prosperous, flourishes 
around the disturbed mountain and over the district of which it is the 
somewhat untrustworthy safety-valve. 

It is thus that man, in his eagerness to cultivate all available parts of 
the earth, dares the most frightful perils and ventures into the most 
threatening situations, seeking to snatch the means of life from the very 
jaws of death. The danger is soon forgotten, the need of cultivation of 
the ground is ever pressing, and no threats of peril seem capable of 
restraining the activity of man for many years. Though the proposition of 
abandoning the Island of Martinique has been seriously considered, the 
chances are that, before many years have passed, a cheerful and busy 
population will be at work again on the flanks of Mont Pelee. 

MOUNT ETNA 

On the eastern coast of the Island of Sicily, and not far from the sea, 
rises in solitary grandeur Mount Etna, the largest and highest of European 
volcanoes. Its height above the level of the sea is a little over 10,870 
feet, considerably above the limit of perpetual snow. It accordingly 
presents the striking phenomenon of volcanic vapors ascending from a snow-
clad summit. The base of the mountain is eighty-seven miles in 
circumference, and nearly circular; but there is a wide additional extent 
all around overspread by its lava. The lower portions of the mountain are 
exceedingly fertile, and richly adorned with corn-fields, vineyards, olive-
groves and orchards. Above this region are extensive forests, chiefly of 
oak, chestnut, and pine, with here and there clumps of cork-trees and 
beech. In this forest region are grassy glades, which afford rich pasture 
to numerous flocks. Above the forest lies a volcanic desert, covered with 
black lava and slag. Out of this region, which is comparatively flat rises 
the principal cone, about 1,100 feet in height, having on its summit the 
crater, whence sulphurous vapors are continually evolved. 

The great height of Etna has exerted a remarkable influence on its general 
conformation: for the volcanic forces have rarely been of sufficient 
energy to throw the lava quite up to the crater at the summit. The 
consequence has been, that numerous subsidiary craters and cones have been 
formed all around the flanks of the mountain, so that it has become rather 
a cluster of volcanoes than a single volcanic cone. 

The eruptions of this mountain have been numerous, records of them 
extending back to several centuries before the Christian era, while 
unrecorded ones doubtless took place much further back. After the 
beginning of the Christian era, and more especially after the breaking 
forth of Vesuvius in 79 A. D., Etna enjoyed longer intervals of repose. 
Its eruptions since that time have nevertheless been numerous--more 
especially during the intervals when Vesuvius was inactive--there being a 
sort of alternation between the periods of great activity of the two 
mountains; although there are not a few instances of their having been 
both in action at the same time. 

SIMILARITY IN ETNA'S ERUPTIONS 

There is a great similarity in the character of the eruptions of Etna. 
Earthquakes presage the outburst, loud explosions follow, rifts and bocche 
del fuoco open in the sides of the mountain; smoke, sand, ashes and 
scoriae are discharged, the action localizes itself in one or more 
craters, cinders are thrown up and accumulate around the crater and cone, 
ultimately lava rises and frequently breaks down one side of the cone 
where the resistance is least; then the eruption is at an end. 

Smyth says: "The symptoms which precede an eruption are generally 
irregular clouds of smoke, ferilli or volcanic lightnings, hollow 
intonations and local earthquakes that often alarm the surrounding country 
as far as Messina, and have given the whole province the name of Val 
Demone, as being the abode of infernal spirits. These agitations increase 
until the vast cauldron becomes surcharged with the fused minerals, when, 
if the convulsion is not sufficiently powerful to force them from the 
great crater (which, from its great altitude and the weight of the candent 
matter, requires an uncommon effort), they explode through that part of 
the side which offers the least resistance with a grand and terrific 
effect, throwing red-hot stones and flakes of fire to an incredible 
height, and spreading ignited cinders and ashes in every direction." 

After the eruption of ashes, lava frequently follows, sometimes rising to 
the top of the cone of cinders, at others disrupting it on the least 
resisting side. When the lava has reached the base of the cone it begins 
to flow down the mountain, and, being then in a very fluid state, it moves 
with great velocity. As it cools, the sides and surface begin to harden, 
its velocity decreases, and after several days it moves only a few yards 
an hour. The internal portions, however, part slowly with their heat, and 
months after the eruption clouds of steam arise from the black and 
externally cold lava-beds after rain; which, having penetrated through the 
cracks, has found its way to the heated mass within. 

THE ERUPTION OF 1669 

The most memorable of the eruptions of Etna was that which elevated the 
double cone of Monte Rossi and destroyed a large part of the city of 
Catania. It happened in the year 1669, and was preceded by an earthquake, 
which overthrew the town of Nicolosi, situated ten miles inland from 
Catania, and about twenty miles from the top of Etna. The eruption began 
with the sudden opening of an enormous fissure, extending from a little 
way above Nicolosi to within about a mile of the top of the principal 
cone, its length being twelve miles, its average breadth six feet, its 
depth unknown. 

We have a more detailed account of this eruption than of any preceding 
one, as it was observed by men of science from various countries. The 
account from which we select is that of Alfonso Borelli, Professor of 
Mathematics in Catania. 

From the fissure above mentioned, he says, there came a bright light. Six 
mouths opened in a line with it and emitted vast columns of smoke, 
accompanied by loud bellowings which could be heard forty miles off. 
Towards the close of the day a crater opened about a mile below the 
others, which ejected red-hot stones to a considerable distance, and 
afterward sand and ashes which covered the country for a distance of sixty 
miles. The new crater soon vomited forth a torrent of lava which presented 
a front of two miles; it encircled Monpilieri, and afterward flowed 
towards Belpasso, a town of 8,000 inhabitants, which was speedily 
destroyed. Seven mouths of fire opened around the new crater, and in three 
days united with it, forming one large crater 800 feet in diameter. All 
this time the torrent of lava continued to descend, it destroying the town 
of Mascalucia on the 23d of March. On the same day the crater cast up 
great quantities of sand, ashes and scoriae, and formed above itself the 
great double-coned hill now called Monte Rossi, from the red color of the 
ashes of which it is mainly composed. 

VILLAGES AND CITIES BURIED 

On the 25th very violent earthquakes occurred, and the cone above the 
great central crater was shaken down into the crater for the fifth time 
since the first century A. D. The original current of lava divided into 
three streams, one of which destroyed San Pietro, the second Camporotondo, 
and the third the lands about Mascalucia and afterward the village of 
Misterbianco. Fourteen villages were altogether destroyed, and the lava 
flowed toward Catania. At Albanelli, two miles from the city, it 
undermined a hill covered with cornfields and carried it forward a 
considerable distance. A vineyard was also seen to be floating on its 
fiery surface. When the lava reached the walls of Catania, it accumulated 
without progression until it rose to the top of the wall, 60 feet in 
height, and it then fell over in a fiery cascade and overwhelmed a part of 
the city. Another portion of the same stream threw down 120 feet of the 
wall and flowed into the city. 

On the 23d of April the lava reached the sea, which it entered as a stream 
600 yards broad and 40 feet deep. The stream had moved at the rate of 
thirteen miles in twenty days, but as it cooled it moved less quickly, and 
during the last twenty-three days of its course, it advanced only two 
miles. On reaching the sea the water, of course, began to boil violently, 
and clouds of steam arose, carrying with them particles of scoriae. 
Towards the end of April the stream on the west side of Catania, which had 
appeared to be consolidated, again burst forth, and flowed into the garden 
of the Benedictine Monastery of San Niccola, and then branched off into 
the city. Attempts were made to build walls to arrest its progress. 

An attempt of another kind was made by a gentleman of Catania, named 
Pappalardo, who took fifty men with him, having previously provided them 
with skins for protection from the intense heat and with crowbars to 
effect an opening in the lava. They pierced the solid outer crust of 
solidified lava, and a rivulet of the molten interior immediately gushed 
out and flowed in the direction of Paterno, whereupon 500 men of that 
town, alarmed for its safety, took up arms and caused Pappalardo and his 
men to desist. The lava did not altogether stop for four months, and two 
years after it had ceased to flow it was found to be red hot beneath the 
surface. Even eight years after the eruption quantities of steam escaped 
from the lava after a shower of rain. 

THE STONES EJECTED 

The stones which were ejected from the crater during this eruption were 
often of considerable magnitude, and Borelli calculated that the diameter 
of one which he saw was 50 feet; it was thrown to a distance of a mile, 
and as it fell it penetrated the earth to a depth of 23 feet. The volume 
of lava emitted during the eruption amounted to many millions of cubic 
feet. Ferara considers that the length of the stream was at least fifteen 
miles, while its average width was between two and three miles, so that it 
covered at least forty square miles of surface. 

Among the towns overflowed by this great eruption was Mompilieri. Thirty-
five years afterward, in 1704, an excavation was made on the site of the 
principal church of this place, and at the depth of thirty-five feet the 
workmen came upon the gate, which was adorned with three statues. From 
under an arch which had been formed by the lava, one of these statues, 
with a bell and some coins, were extracted in good preservation. This fact 
is remarkable; for in a subsequent eruption, which happened in 1766, a 
hill about fifty feet in height, being surrounded on either side by two 
streams of lava, was in a quarter of an hour swept along by the current. 
The latter event may be explained by supposing that the hill in question 
was cavernous in its structure, and that the lava, penetrating into the 
cavities, forced asunder their walls, and so detached the superincumbent 
mass from its supports. 

It is not by its streams of fire alone that Etna ravages the valleys and 
plains at its base. It sometimes also deluges them with great floods of 
water. On the 2d of March, 1755, two streams of lava, issuing from the 
highest crater, were at once precipitated on an enormous mass of very deep 
snow, which then clothed the summit. These fiery currents ran through the 
snow to a distance of three miles, melting it as they flowed. The 
consequence was, that a tremendous torrent of water rushed down the sides 
of the mountain, carrying with it vast quantities of sand, volcanic 
cinders and blocks of lava, with which it overspread the flanks of the 
mountain and the plains beneath, which it devastated in its course. 

The volume of water was estimated at 16,000,000 cubic feet, it forming a 
channel two miles broad and in some places thirty-four feet deep, and 
flowing at the rate of two-thirds of a mile in a minute. All the winter's 
snow on the mountain could not have yielded such a flood, and Lyell 
considered that it melted older layers of ice which had been preserved 
under a covering of volcanic dust. 

ETNA IN 1819 

Another great eruption took place in 1819, which presented some 
peculiarities. Near the point whence the highest stream of lava issued in 
1811, there were opened three large mouths, which, with loud explosions, 
threw up hot cinders and sand, illuminated by a strong glare from beneath. 
Shortly afterwards there was opened, a little lower down, another mouth, 
from which a similar eruption took place; and still farther down there 
soon appeared a fifth, whence there flowed a torrent of lava which rapidly 
spread itself over the Val del Bove. During the first forty-eight hours it 
flowed nearly four miles, when it received a great accession. The three 
original mouths became united into one large crater, from which, as well 
as from the other two mouths below, there poured forth a vastly augmented 
torrent of lava, which rushed with great impetuosity down the same valley. 

During its progress over this gentle slope, it acquired the usual crust of 
hardened slag. It directed its course towards that point at which Val del 
Bove opens into the narrow ravine beneath it-- there being between the two 
a deep and almost perpendicular precipice. Arrived at this point, the lava-
torrent leaped over the precipice in a vast cascade, and with a thundering 
noise, arising chiefly from the crashing and breaking up of the solid 
crust, which was in a great measure pounded to atoms by the fall; it 
throwing up such vast clouds of dust as to awaken an alarm that a fresh 
eruption had begun at this place, which is within the wooded region. 

A very violent eruption, which lasted more than nine months, commenced on 
the 21st of August, 1852. It was first witnessed by a party of English 
tourists, who were ascending the mountain from Nicolosi in order to see 
the sunrise from the summit. As they approached the Casa Inglesi the 
crater commenced to give forth ashes and flames of fire. In a narrow 
defile they were met by a violent hurricane, which overthrew both the 
mules and their riders, and urged them toward the precipices of the Val 
del Bove. They sheltered themselves beneath some masses of lava, when 
suddenly an earthquake shook the mountain, and their mules in terror fled 
away. As day approached they returned on foot to Nicolosi, fortunately 
without having sustained injury. In the course of the night many bocche 
del fuoco (small lava vents) opened in that part of the Val del Bove 
called the Bazo di Trifoglietto, a great fissure opened at the base of the 
Giannicola Grande, and a crater was thrown up from which for seventeen 
days showers of sand and scoriae were ejected. 

EFFECT OF THE ERUPTION 

During the next day a quantity of lava flowed down the Val del Bove, 
branching off so that one stream advanced to the foot of Monte Finocchio, 
and the other to Monte Calanna. Afterwards it flowed towards Zaffarana, 
and devastated a large tract of wooded region. Four days later a second 
crater was formed near the first, from which lava was emitted, together 
with sand and scoriae, which caused cones to arise around the craters. The 
lava moved but slowly, and towards the end of August it came to a stand, 
only a quarter of a mile from Zaffarana. 

On the second of September, Gemellaro ascended Monte Finocchio in the Val 
del Bove in order to witness the outburst. He states that the hill was 
violently agitated, like a ship at sea. The surface of the Val del Bove 
appeared like a molten lake; scoriae were thrown up from the craters to a 
great height, and loud explosions were heard at frequent intervals. The 
eruption continued to increase in violence. On October 6 two new mouths 
opened in the Val del Bove, emitting lava which flowed towards the valley 
of Calanna, and fell over the Salto della Giumenta, a precipice nearly 200 
feet deep. The noise which it produced was like that of a clash of 
metallic masses. The eruption continued with abated violence during the 
early months of 1853, and it did not finally cease till May 27. The entire 
mass of lava ejected is estimated to have been equal to an area six miles 
long by two miles broad, with an average depth of about twelve feet. 

This eruption was one of the grandest of all the known eruptions of Etna. 
During its outflow more than 2,000,000,000 cubic feet of molten lava was 
spread out over a space of three square miles. There have been several 
eruptions since its date, but none of marked prominence, though the 
mountain is rarely quiescent for any lengthened period. 

THE LIPARI VOLCANOES 

South-eastward of Ischia, between Calabria and Sicily, the Lipari Islands 
arrest attention for the volcanic phenomena they present. On one of these 
is Mount Vulcano, or Volcano, from which all this class of mountains is 
named. At present the best known of the Lipari volcanoes is Stromboli, 
which consists of a single mountain, having a very obtuse conical form. It 
has on one side of it several small craters, of which only one is at 
present in a state of activity. 

The total height of the mountain is about 2000 feet, and the principal 
crater is situated at about two-thirds of the height. Stromboli is one of 
the most active volcanoes in the world. It is mentioned as being in a 
state of activity by several writers before the Christian era, and the 
commencement of its operations extends into the past beyond the limits of 
tradition. Since history began its action has never wholly ceased, 
although it may have varied in intensity from time to time. 

It has been observed that the violence of its eruptive force has a certain 
dependence on the weather--being always most intense when the barometer is 
lowest. From the position of the crater, it is possible to ascend the 
mountain and look down upon it from above. Even when viewed in this 
manner, it presents a very striking appearance. While there is an 
uninterrupted continuance of small explosions, there is a frequent 
succession of more violent eruptions, at intervals varying in length from 
seven to fifteen minutes. 

HOFFMAN AT STROMBOLI 

Several eminent observers have approached quite close to the crater, and 
examined it narrowly. One of these was M. Hoffman, who visited it in 1828. 

This eminent geologist, while having his legs held by his companions, 
stretched his head over the precipice, and, looking right down into the 
mouth of one of the vents of the crater immediately under him, watched the 
play of liquid lava within it. Its surface resembled molten silver, and 
was constantly rising and falling at regular intervals. A bubble of white 
vapor rose and escaped, with a decrepitating noise, at each ascent of the 
lava-- tossing up red-hot fragments of scoria, which continued dancing up 
and down with a sort of rhythmic play upon the surface. At intervals of 
fifteen minutes or so, there was a pause in these movements. Then followed 
a loud report, while the ground trembled, and there rose to the surface of 
the lava an immense bubble of vapor. This, bursting with a crackling 
noise, threw out to the height of about 1200 feet large quantities of red-
hot stones and scoriae, which, describing parabolic curves, fell in a 
fiery, shower all around. After another brief repose, the more moderate 
action was resumed as before. 

Lipari, a neighboring volcano, was formerly more active than Stromboli, 
though for centuries past it has been in a state of complete quiescence. 
The Island of Volcano lies south of Lipari. Its crater was active before 
the Christian era, and still emits sulphurous and other vapors. At present 
its main office is to serve as a sulphur mine. Thus the peak which gives 
title to all fire-breathing mountains has become a servant to man. So are 
the mighty fallen! 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
SKAPTAR JOKULL AND HECLA, THE GREAT ICELANDIC VOLCANOES

The far-northern island of Iceland, on the verge of the frozen Arctic 
realm, is one of the most volcanic countries in the world, whether we 
regard the number of volcanoes concentrated in so small a space, or the 
extraordinary violence of their eruptions. Of volcanic mountains there are 
no less than twenty which have been active during historical times. 
Skaptar in the north, and Hecla in the south, being much the best known. 
In all, twenty-three eruptions are on record. 

Iceland's volcanoes rival Mount Aetna in height and magnitude, their 
action has been more continuous and intense, and the range of volcanic 
products is far greater than in Sicily. The latter island, indeed, is not 
one-tenth of volcanic origin, while the whole of Iceland is due to the 
work of subterranean forces. It is entirely made up of volcanic rocks, and 
has seemingly been built up during the ages from the depths of the seas. 
It is reported, indeed, that a new island, the work of volcanic forces, 
appeared opposite Mount Hecla in 1563; but this statement is open to 
doubt. 

VOLCANOES IN ICELAND 

The eruptions of the volcanoes in Iceland have been amongst the most 
terrible of those carefully recorded. The cold climate of the island and 
the height of the mountains produce vast quantities of snow and ice, which 
cover the volcanoes and fill up the cracks and valleys in their sides. 
When, therefore, an eruption commences, the intense heat of the boiling 
lava, and of the steam which rushes forth from the crater, makes the whole 
mountain hot, and vast masses of ice, great fields of snow, and deluges of 
water roll down the hill-sides into the plains. The lava pours from the 
top and from cracks in the side of the mountain, or is ejected hundreds of 
feet, to fall amongst the ice and snow; and the great masses of red-hot 
stone cast forth, accompanied by cinders and fine ashes, splash into the 
roaring torrent, which tears up rocks in its course and devastates the 
surrounding country for miles. 

DREADFUL FLOODS 

An eruption of Kotlugja, in 1860, was accompanied by dreadful floods. It 
began with a number of earthquakes, which shook the surrounding country. 
Then a dark columnar cloud of vapor was seen to rise by day from the 
mountain, and by night balls of fire (volcanic bombs) and red-hot cinders 
to the height of 24,000 feet (nearly five miles), which were seen at a 
distance of 180 miles. Deluges of water rushed from the heights, bearing 
along whole fields of ice and rocky fragments of every size, some vomited 
from the volcano, but in great part torn from the flanks of the mountain 
itself and carried to the sea, there to add considerably to the coastline 
after devastating the intervening country. The fountain of volcanic bombs 
consisted of masses of lava, containing gases which exploded and produced 
a loud sound, which was said to have been heard at a distance of 100 
miles. The size of the bombs, and the height to which they must have 
reached, were very great. But the most remarkable of the historical 
eruptions in Iceland were those of Skaptar Jokull in 1783, and of Hecla in 
1845. Of these an extended description is worthy of being given. 

Of these two memorable eruptions, that of Skaptar Jokull began on the 11th 
of June, 1783. It was preceded by a long series of earthquakes, which had 
become exceedingly violent immediately before the eruption. On the 8th, 
volcanic vapors were emitted from the summit of the mountain, and on the 
11th immense torrents of lava began to be poured forth from numerous 
mouths. These torrents united to form a large stream, which, flowing down 
into the river Skapta, not only dried it up, but completely filled the 
vast gorge through which the river had held its course. This gorge, 200 
feet in breadth, and from 400 to 600 feet in depth, the lava filled so 
entirely as to overflow to a considerable extent the fields on either 
side. On issuing from this ravine, the lava flowed into a deep lake which 
lay in the course of the river. Here it was arrested for a while; but it 
ultimately filled the bed of the lake altogether--either drying up its 
waters, or chasing them before it into the lower part of the river's 
course. Still forced onward by the accumulation of molten lava from 
behind, the stream resumed its advance, till it reached some ancient 
volcanic rocks which were full of caverns. Into these it entered, and 
where it could not eat its way by melting the old rock, it forced a 
passage by shivering the solid mass and throwing its broken fragments into 
the air to a height of 150 feet. 

A TORRENT OF LAVA 

On the 18th of June there opened above the first mouth a second of large 
dimensions, whence poured another immense torrent of lava, which flowed 
with great rapidity over the solidified surface of the first stream, and 
ultimately combined with it to form a more formidable main current. When 
this fresh stream reached the fiery lake, which had filled the lower 
portion of the valley of the Skapta, a portion of it was forced up the 
channel of that river towards the foot of the hill whence it takes its 
rise. After pursuing its course for several days, the main body of this 
stream reached the edge of a great waterfall called Stapafoss, which 
plunged into a deep abyss. Displacing the water, the lava here leaped over 
the precipice, and formed a great cataract of fire. After this, it filled 
the channel of the river, though extending itself in breadth far beyond 
it, and followed it until it reached the sea. 

ENORMOUS QUANTITY OF LAVA 

The 3rd of August brought fresh accessions to the flood of lava still 
pouring from the mountain. There being no room in the channel, now filled 
by the former lurid stream, which had pursued a northwesterly course, the 
fresh lava was forced to take a new direction towards the southeast, where 
it entered the bed of another river with a barbaric name. Here it pursued 
a course similar to that which flowed through the channel of the Skapta, 
filling up the deep gorges, and then spreading itself out into great fiery 
lakes over the plains. 

The eruptions of lava from the mountain continued, with some short 
intervals, for two years, and so enormous was the quantity poured forth 
during this period that, according to a careful estimate which has been 
made, the whole together would form a mass equal to that of Mont Blanc. Of 
the two streams, the greater was fifty, the less forty, miles in length. 
The Skapta branch attained on the plains a breadth varying from twelve to 
fifteen miles--that of the other was only about half as much. Each of the 
currents had an average depth of 100 feet, but in the deep gorges it was 
no less than 600 feet. Even as late as 1794 vapors continued to rise from 
these great streams, and the water contained in the numerous fissures 
formed in their crust was hot. 

The devastation directly wrought by the lava currents themselves was not 
the whole of the evils they brought upon unfortunate Iceland and its 
inhabitants. Partly owing to the sudden melting of the snows and glaciers 
of the mountain, partly owing to the stoppage of the river courses, 
immense floods of water deluged the country in the neighborhood, 
destroying many villages and a large amount of agricultural and other 
property. Twenty villages were overwhelmed by the lava currents, while the 
ashes thrown out during the eruption covered the whole island and the 
surface of the sea for miles around its shores. On several occasions the 
ashes were drifted by the winds over considerable parts of the European 
continent, obscuring the sun and giving the sky a gray and gloomy aspect. 
In certain respects they reproduced the phenomena of the explosion of 
Mount Krakatoa, which, singularly, occurred just a century later, in 1883. 
The strange red sunset phenomena of the latter were reproduced by this 
Icelandic event of the eighteenth century. 

Out of the 50,000 persons who then inhabited Iceland, 9,336 perished, 
together with 11,460 head of cattle, 190,480 sheep and 28,000 horses. This 
dreadful destruction of life was caused partly by the direct action of the 
lava currents, partly by the noxious vapors they emitted, partly by the 
floods of water, partly by the destruction of the herbage by the falling 
ashes, and lastly in consequence of the desertion of the coasts by the 
fish, which formed a large portion of the food of the people. 

ERUPTION OF MOUNT HECLA 

After this frightful eruption, no serious volcanic disturbance took place 
in Iceland until 1845, when Mount Hecla again became disastrously active. 
Mount Hecla has been the most frequent in its eruptions of any of the 
Icelandic volcanoes. Previous to 1845 there had been twenty-two recorded 
eruptions of this mountain, since the discovery of Iceland in the ninth 
century; while from all the other volcanoes in the island there had been 
only twenty during the same period. Hecla has more than once remained in 
activity for six years at a time--a circumstance that has rendered it the 
best known of the volcanoes of this region. 

LATER OUTBREAKS 

After enjoying a long rest of seventy-nine years, this volcano burst again 
into violent activity in the beginning of September, 1845. The first 
inkling of this eruption was conveyed to the British Islands by a fall of 
volcanic ashes in the Orkneys, which occurred on the night of September 
2nd during a violent storm. This palpable hint was soon confirmed by 
direct intelligence from Copenhagen. On the 1st of September a severe 
earthquake, followed the same night by fearful subterranean noises, 
alarmed the inhabitants and gave warning of what was to come. About noon 
the next day, with a dreadful crash, there opened in the sides of the 
volcano two new mouths, whence two great streams of glowing lava poured 
forth. They fortunately flowed down the northern and northwestern sides of 
the mountain, where the low grounds are mere barren heaths, affording a 
scanty pasture for a few sheep. These were driven before the fiery stream, 
but several of them were burnt before they could escape. The whole 
mountain was enveloped in clouds of volcanic ashes and vapors. The rivers 
near the lava currents became so hot as to kill the fish, and to be 
impassable even on horseback. 

About a fortnight later there was a fresh eruption, of greater violence, 
which lasted twenty-two hours, and was accompanied by detonations so loud 
as to be heard over the whole island. Two new craters were formed, one on 
the southern, the other on the eastern slope of the cone. The lava issuing 
from these craters flowed to a distance of more than twenty-two miles. At 
about two miles from its source the fiery stream was a mile wide, and from 
40 to 50 feet deep. It destroyed a large extent of fine pasture and many 
cattle. Nearly a month later, on the 15th of October, a fresh flood of 
lava burst from the southern crater, and soon heaped up a mass at the foot 
of the mountain from 40 to 60 feet in height, three great columns of 
vapor, dust and ashes rising at the same time from the three new craters 
of the volcano. The mountain continued in a state of greater or less 
activity during most of the next year; and even as late as the month of 
October, 1846, after a brief pause, it began again with renewed vehemence. 
The volumes of dust, ashes and vapor, thrown up from the craters, and 
brightly illuminated by the glowing lava beneath, assumed the appearance 
of flames, and ascended to an immense height. 

ELECTRIC PHENOMENA 

Among the stones tossed out of the craters was one large mass of pumice 
weighing nearly half a ton, which was carried to a distance of between 
four and five miles. The rivers were flooded by the melting of ice and 
snow which had accumulated on the mountain. The greatest mischief wrought 
by these successive eruptions was the destruction of the pasturages, which 
were for the most part covered with volcanic ashes. Even where left 
exposed, the herbage acquired a poisonous taint which proved fatal to the 
cattle, inducing among them a peculiar murrain. Fortunately, owing to the 
nature of the district through which the lava passed, there was on this 
occasion no loss of human life. 

The Icelandic volcanoes are remarkable for the electric phenomena which 
they produce in the atmosphere. Violent thunder-storms, with showers of 
rain and hail, are frequent accompaniments of volcanic eruptions 
everywhere; but owing to the coldness and dryness of the air into which 
the vapors from the Icelandic volcanoes ascend, their condensation is so 
sudden and violent that great quantities of electricity are developed. 
Thunder-storms accompanied by the most vivid lightnings are the result. 
Humboldt mentions in his "Cosmos" that, during an eruption of Kotlugja, 
one of the southern Icelandic volcanoes, the lightning from the cloud of 
volcanic vapor killed eleven horses and two men (Cosmos i. 223). Great 
displays of the aurora borealis usually accompany the volcanic eruptions 
of this island--doubtless resulting from the quantity of electricity 
imparted to the higher atmosphere by the condensation of the ascending 
vapors. On the 18th of August, 1783, while the great eruption of Skaptar 
Jokull was in progress, an immense fire-ball passed over England and the 
European continent as far as Rome. This ball which was estimated to have 
had a diameter exceeding half a mile, is supposed to have been of 
electrical origin, and due to the high state of electric tension in the 
atmosphere over Iceland at that time. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
VOLCANOES OF THE PHILIPPINES AND OTHER PACIFIC ISLANDS

We cannot do better than open this chapter with an account of the work of 
volcanoes in the mountain-girdled East Indian island of Java. This large 
and fertile tropical island has a large native population, and many 
European settlers are employed in cultivating spices, coffee and woods. 
The island is rather more than 600 miles long, and it is not 150 miles 
broad in any part; and this narrow shape is produced by a chain of 
volcanoes which runs along it. There is scarcely any other region in the 
world where volcanoes are so numerous, even in the East, where the volcano 
is a very common product of nature. Some of the volcanoes of Java are 
constantly in eruption, while others are inactive. 

One of their number, Galung Gung, was previous to 1822 covered from top to 
bottom with a dense forest; around it were populous villages. The mountain 
was high; there was a slight hollow on its top--a basin-like valley, 
carpeted with the softest sward; brooks rippled down the hillside through 
the forests, and, joining their silvery streams, flowed on through 
beautiful valleys into the distant sea. In the month of July, 1822, there 
were signs of an approaching disturbance; this tranquil peacefulness was 
at an end; one of the rivers became muddy, and its waters grew hot. 

In October, without any warning, a most terrific eruption occurred. A loud 
explosion was heard; the earth shook, and immense columns of hot water, 
boiling mud mixed with burning brimstone, ashes and stones, were hurled 
upwards from the mountain top like a waterspout, and with such wonderful 
force that large quantities fell at a distance of forty miles. Every 
valley near the mountain became filled with burning torrents; the rivers, 
swollen with hot water and mud, overflowed their banks, and swept away the 
escaping villagers; and the bodies of cattle, wild beasts, and birds were 
carried down the flooded stream. 

ERUPTION OF GALUNG GUNG 

A space of twenty-four miles between the mountain and a river forty miles 
distant was covered to such a depth with blue mud, that people were buried 
in their houses, and not a trace of the numerous villages and plantations 
was visible. The boiling mud and cinders were cast forth with such 
violence from the crater, that while many distant villages were utterly 
destroyed and buried, others much nearer the volcano were scarcely 
injured; and all this was done in five short hours. 

Four days afterwards a second eruption occurred more violent than the 
first, and hot water and mud were cast forth with masses of slag like the 
rock called basalt some of which fell seven miles off. A violent 
earthquake shook the whole district, and the top of the mountain fell in, 
and so did one of its sides, leaving a gaping chasm. Hills appeared where 
there had been level land before, and the rivers changed their courses, 
drowning in one night 2,000 people. At some distance from the mountain a 
river runs through a large town, and the first intimation the inhabitants 
had of all this horrible destruction was the news that the bodies of men 
and the carcases of stags, rhinoceroses, tigers, and other animals, were 
rushing along to the sea. No less than 114 villages were destroyed, and 
above 4,000 persons were killed by this terrible catastrophe. 

Fifty years before this eruption, Mount Papandayang, one of the highest 
burning mountains of Java, was constantly throwing out steam and smoke, 
but as no harm was done, the natives continued to live on its sides. 
Suddenly this enormous mountain fell in, and left a gap fifteen miles long 
and six broad. Forty villages were destroyed, some being carried down and 
others overwhelmed by mud and burning lava. No less than 2,957 people 
perished, with vast numbers of cattle; moreover, most of the coffee 
plantations in the neighboring districts were destroyed. 

Even more terrible was the eruption of Mount Salek, another of the 
volcanoes of Java. The burning of the mountain was seen 100 miles away, 
while the thunders of its convulsions and the tremblings of the earth 
reached the same distance. Seven hills, at whose base ran a river--crowded 
with dead buffaloes, deer, apes, tigers, and crocodiles--slipped down and 
became a level plain. River-courses were changed, forests were burnt up, 
and the whole face of the country was completely altered. 

Later volcanic eruptions in Java include that of 1843, when Mount Guntur 
flung out sand and ashes estimated at the vast total of thirty million 
tons, and those of 1849 and 1872 when Mount Merapi, a very active volcano, 
covered a great extent of country with stones and ashes, and ruined the 
coffee plantations of the neighboring districts. 

We have said nothing concerning the most terrible explosion of all, that 
of the volcanic island of Krakatoa, off the Javan coast. This event was so 
phenomenal as to deserve a chapter of its own, for which we reserve it. 

The United States, as one result of its recent acquisition of island 
dominions, has added largely to its wealth in volcanic mountains. The 
famous Hawaiian craters, far the greatest in the world, now belong to our 
national estate, and the Philippine Islands contain various others, of 
less importance, yet some of which have proved very destructive. A 
description of those of the Island of Luzon, which are the most active in 
the archipelago, is here sub-joined. 

THE LUZON VOLCANOES. 

Volcanoes have played an important part in the formation of the Philippine 
Islands and have left traces of their former activity in all directions. 
Most of them, however, have long been dead and silent, only a few of the 
once numerous group being now active. Of these there are three of 
importance in the southern region of Luzon--Taal, Bulusan and Mayon or 
Albay. 

The last named of these is the largest and most active of the existing 
volcanoes. In form it is of marvellous grace and beauty, forming a perfect 
cone, about fifty miles in circuit at base and rising to a height of 8,900 
feet. It is one of the most prominent landmarks to navigators in the 
island. From its crater streams upward a constant smoke, accompanied at 
times by flame, while from its depths issue subterranean sounds, often 
heard at a distance of many leagues. The whole surrounding country is 
marked by evidences of old eruptions. 

This mountain, in 1767, sent up a cone of flame of forty feet in diameter 
at base, for ten days, and for two months a wide stream of lava poured 
from its crater. A month later there gushed forth great floods of water, 
which filled the rivers to overflow, doing widespread damage to the 
neighboring plantations. But its greatest and most destructive eruption 
took place in 1812, the year of the great eruption of the St. Vincent 
volcano. On this fatal occasion several towns were destroyed and no less 
than 12,000 people lost their lives. The debris flung forth from the 
crater were so abundant that deposits deep enough to bury the tallest 
trees were formed near the mountain. In 1867 another disastrous explosion 
took place, and still another in 1888. A disaster different in kind and 
cause occurred in 1876, when a terrible tropical storm burst upon the 
mountain. The floods of rain swept from its sides the loose volcanic 
material, and brought destruction to the neighboring country, more than 
six thousand houses being ruined by the rushing flood. 

BULUSAN AND TAAL 

Bulusan, a volcano on the southern extremity of the island, resembles 
Vesuvius in shape. For many years it remained dormant, but in 1852 smoke 
began to issue from its crater. In some respects the most interesting of 
these three volcanoes is that of Taal, which lies almost due south of 
Manila and about forty-five miles distant, on a small island in the middle 
of a large lake, known as Bombom or Bongbong. A remarkable feature of this 
volcanic mountain is that it is probably the lowest in the world, its 
height being only 850 feet above sea level. There are doubtful traditions 
that Lake Bombom, a hundred square miles in extent, was formed by a 
terrible eruption in 1700, by which a lofty mountain 8000 or 9000 feet 
high, was destroyed. The vast deposits of porous tufa in the surrounding 
country are certainly evidences of former great eruptions from Mount Taal. 

The crater of this volcano is an immense, cup-shaped depression, a mile or 
more in diameter and about 800 feet deep. When recently visited by 
Professor Worcester, during his travels in these islands, he found it to 
contain three boiling lakelets of strangely-colored water, one being of a 
dirty brown hue, a second intensely yellow in tint, and the third of a 
brilliant emerald green. The mountain still steams and fumes, as if too 
actively at work below to be at rest above. In past times it has shown the 
forces at play in its depths by breaking at times into frightful activity. 
Of the various explosions on record, the three most violent were those of 
1716, 1749, and 1754. In the last-named year the earth for miles round 
quaked with the convulsive throes of the deeply disturbed mountain, and 
vast quantities of volcanic dust were hurled high into the air, sufficient 
to make it dark at midday for many leagues around. The roofs of distant 
Manila were covered with volcanic dust and ashes. Molten lava also poured 
from the crater and flowed into the lake, which boiled with the intense 
heat, while great showers of stones and ashes fell into its waters. 

VOLCANOES IN THE SOUTHERN ISLANDS 

Extinct volcanoes are numerous in Luzon, and there are smoking cones in 
the north, and also in the Babuyanes Islands still farther north. 
Volcanoes also exist in several of the other islands. On Negros is the 
active peak of Malaspina, and on Camiguin, an island about ninety miles to 
the southeast, a new volcano broke out in 1876. The large island of 
Mindanao has three volcanoes, of which Cottabato was in eruption in 1856 
and is still active at intervals. Apo, the largest of the three, estimated 
to be 10,312 feet high, has three summits, within which lies the great 
crater, now extinct and filled with water. 

In evidence of former volcanic activity are the abundant deposits of 
sulphur on the island of Leyte, the hot springs in various localities, and 
the earthquakes which occasionally bring death and destruction. Of the 
many of these on record, the most destructive was in 1863, when 400 people 
were killed and 2,000 injured, while many buildings were wrecked. Another 
in 1880 wrought great destruction in Manila and elsewhere, though without 
loss of life. An earthquake in Mindanao in 1675 opened a passage to the 
sea, and a vast plain emerged. These convulsions of the earth affect the 
form and elevation of buildings, which are rarely more than two stories 
high and lightly built, while translucent sea-shells replace glass in 
their windows. 

While Java is the most prolific in volcanoes of the islands of the Malayan 
Archipelago, other islands of the group possess active cones, including 
Sumatra, Bali, Amboyna, Banda and others. In Sanguir, an island north of 
Celebes, is a volcanic mountain from which there was a destructive 
eruption in 1856. The country was devastated with lava, stones and 
volcanic ashes, ruining a wide district and killing nearly 3,000 of the 
inhabitants. Mount Madrian in one of the Spice Islands, was rent in twain 
by a fierce eruption in 1646, and since then has remained two distinct 
mountains. It became active again in 1862, after two centuries of repose, 
and caused great loss of life and property. Sorea, a small island of the 
same group, forming but a single volcanic mountain, had an eruption in 
1693, the cone crumbling gradually till a vast crater was formed, filled 
with liquid lava and occupying nearly half the island. This lake of fire 
increased in size by the same process till in the end it took possession 
of the island and forced all the inhabitants to flee to more hospitable 
shores. 

THE GREAT ERUPTION OF TOMBORO 

But of the East Indian Islands Sumbawa, lying east of Java, contains the 
most formidable volcano--one indeed scarcely without a rival in the world. 
This is named Tomboro. Of its various eruptions the most furious on record 
was that of 1815. This, as we are told by Sir Stamford Raffles, far 
exceeded in force and duration any of the known outbreaks of Etna or 
Vesuvius. The ground trembled and the echoes of its roar were heard 
through an area of 1,000 miles around the volcano, and to a distance of 
300 miles its effects were astounding. 

In Java, 300 miles away, ashes filled the air so thickly that the solar 
rays could not penetrate them, and fell to the depth of several inches. 
The detonations were so similar to the reports of artillery as to be 
mistaken for them. The Rajah of Sang'ir, who was an eye-witness of the 
eruption, thus described it to Sir Stamford: 

"About 7 P. M. on the 10th of April, three distinct columns of flame burst 
forth near the top of the Tomboro mountain (all of them apparently within 
the verge of the crater), and, after ascending separately to a very great 
height, their tops united in the air in a troubled, confused manner. In 
short time the whole mountain next Sang'ir appeared like a body of liquid 
fire, extending itself in every direction. The fire and columns of flame 
continued to rage with unabated fury, until the darkness caused by the 
quantity of falling matter obscured them, at about 8 P. M. Stones at this 
time fell very thick at Sang'ir--some of them as large as two fists, but 
generally not larger than walnuts. Between 9 and 10 P. M. ashes began to 
fall, and soon after a violent whirlwind ensued, which blew down nearly 
every house in the village of Sang'ir--carrying the roofs and light parts 
away with it. In the port of Sang'ir, adjoining Tomboro, its effects were 
much more violent--tearing up by the roots the largest trees, and carrying 
them into the air, together with men, horses, cattle, and whatever else 
came within its influence. This will account for the immense number of 
floating trees seen at sea. The sea rose nearly twelve feet higher than it 
had ever been known to do before, and completely spoiled the only spots of 
rice-land in Sang'ir--sweeping away houses and everything within its 
reach. The whirlwind lasted about an hour. No explosions were heard till 
the whirlwind had ceased, at about 11 P.M. From midnight till the evening 
of the 11th, they continued without intermission. After that time their 
violence moderated, and they were heard only at intervals; but the 
explosions did not cease entirely until the 15th of July. Of all the 
villages of Tomboro, Tempo, containing about forty inhabitants, is the 
only one remaining. In Pekate no vestige of a house is left; twenty-six of 
the people, who were at Sumbawa at the time, are the whole of the 
population who have escaped. From the most particular inquiries I have 
been able to make, there were certainly no fewer than 12,000 individuals 
in Tomboro and Pekate at the time of the eruption, of whom only five or 
six survive. The trees and herbage of every description, along the whole 
of the north and west sides of the peninsula, have been completely 
destroyed, with the exception of those on a high point of land, near the 
spot where the village of Tomboro stood." 

Tomboro village was not only invaded by the sea on this occasion, but its 
site permanently subsided; so that there is now eighteen feet of water 
where there was formerly dry land. 

THE VOLCANOES OF JAPAN 

The Japanese archipelago, as stated in an earlier chapter, is abundantly 
supplied with volcanoes, a number of them being active. Of these the best 
known to travelers is Asamayama, a mountain 8,500 feet high, of which 
there are several recorded eruptions. The first of these was in 1650; 
after which the volcano remained feebly active till 1783, when it broke 
out in a very severe eruption. In 1870 there was another of some severity, 
accompanied by violent shocks of earthquake felt at Yokohama. The crater 
is very deep, with irregular rocky walls of a sulphurous character. 

Far the most famous of all the Japanese mountains, however, is that named 
Fuji-san, but commonly termed in English Fujiyama or Fusiyama. It is in 
the vicinity of the capital, and is the most prominent object in the 
landscape for many miles around. The apex is shaped somewhat like an eight-
petaled lotus flower, and offers to view from different directions from 
three to five peaks. 

Though now apparently extinct, it was formerly an active volcano, and is 
credited in history with several very disastrous eruptions. The last of 
these was in 1707, at which time the whole summit burst into flames. Rocks 
were split and shattered by the heat, and stones fell to the depth of 
several inches in Yeddo (now Tokyo), sixty miles away. At present there 
are in its crater, which has a depth of 700 or 800 feet, neither 
sulphurous exhalations nor steam. According to Japanese tradition this 
great peak was upheaved in a single night from the bottom of the sea, more 
than twenty-one hundred years ago. 

Nothing can be more majestic than this volcano, extinct though it be, 
rising in an immense cone from the plain to the height of over twelve 
thousand feet, truncated at the top, and with its peak almost always snow-
covered. Its ascent is not difficult to an expert climber, and has 
frequently been made. From its summit is unfolded a panorama beyond the 
power of words to describe, and probably the most remarkable on the globe. 
Mountains, valleys, lakes, forests and the villages of thirteen counties 
may be seen. As we gaze upon its beautifully shaped and lofty mass, 
visible even from Yokohama and a hundred miles at sea, one does not wonder 
that it should be regarded as a holy mountain, and that it should form a 
conspicuous object in every Japanese work of art. It is to the natives of 
Japan as Mont Blanc is to Europeans, the "monarch of mountains." 

In summer pilgrimages are made around the base of the summit elevation, 
and there are on the upward path a number of Buddhist temples and shrines, 
made of blocks of stone, for devotion, shelter and the storage of food for 
pilgrims. Hakone Lake is three thousand feet above the sea, and probably 
lies in the crater of an extinct volcano. Its waters are very deep; it is 
several miles long and wide, and is surrounded by high hills which abound 
in fine scenery, solfataras and mineral springs. 

HOT SPRINGS NEAR HAKONE LAKE 

At this place the mountain seems to be smouldering, as sulphur fumes and 
steam issue at many points, and the ground is covered with a friable white 
alkaline substance. In many a hollow the water bubbles with clouds of 
vapor and sulphuretted hydrogen; here the soil is hot and evidently 
underlaid by active fires. It is not safe to go very near, as the crust is 
thin and crumbling. The water running down the hills has a refreshing 
sound and a tempting clearness, but the thirsty tongue at once detects it 
to be a very strong solution of alum. The whole aspect of the place is 
infernal, and naturally suggests the name given its principal geyser, O-
gigoko (Big Hell). 

Fujiyama is almost a perfect cone, with, as above said, a truncated top, 
in which is the crater. It is, however, less steep than Mayon. Its upper 
part is comparatively steep, even to thirty-five degrees, but below this 
portion the inclination gradually lessens, till its elegant outlines are 
lost in the plain from which it rises. The curves of the sides depend 
partly on the nature, size and shape of the ejected material, the fine 
uniform pieces remaining on comparatively steep slopes, while the larger 
and rounder ones roll farther down, resting on the inclination that 
afterward becomes curved from the subsidence of the central mass. 

The most recent and one of the most destructive of volcanic eruptions 
recorded in Japan was that of Bandaisan or Baldaisan. For ages this 
mountain had been peaceful, and there was scarcely an indication of its 
volcanic character or of the terrific forces which lay dormant deep within 
its heart. On its flanks lay some small deposits of scoriae, indications 
of far-past eruptions, and there were some hot springs at its base, while 
steam arose from a fissure. Yet there was nothing to warn the people of 
the vicinity that deadly peril lay under their feet. 

BANDAISAN'S WORK OF TERROR 

This sense of security was fatally dissipated on a day in July, 1888, when 
the mountain suddenly broke into eruption and flung 1,600 million cubic 
yards of its summit material so high into the air that many of the falling 
fragments, in their fall, struck the ground with such velocity as to be 
buried far out of sight. The steam and dust were driven to a height of 13,
000 feet, where they spread into a canopy of much greater elevation, 
causing pitchy darkness beneath. There were from fifteen to twenty violent 
explosions, and a great landslide devastated about thirty square miles and 
buried many villages in the Nagase Valley. 

Mr. Norman, a traveler who visited the spot shortly afterward, thus 
describes the scene of ruin. After a journey through the forests which 
clothed the slopes of the volcanic mountain and prevented any distant 
view, the travelers at last found themselves "standing upon the ragged 
edge of what was left of the mountain of Bandaisan, after two-thirds of 
it, including, of course, the summit, had been literally blown away and 
spread over the face of the country. 

"The original cone of the mountain," he continues, "had been truncated at 
an acute angle to its axis. From our very feet a precipitous mud slope 
falls away for half a mile or more till it reaches the level. At our 
right, still below us, rises a mud wall a mile long, also sloping down to 
the level, and behind it is evidently the crater; but before us, for five 
miles in a straight line, and on each side nearly as far, is a sea of 
congealed mud, broken up into ripples and waves and great billows, and 
bearing upon its bosom a thousand huge boulders, weighing hundreds of tons 
apiece." 

On reaching the crater he found it to resemble a gigantic cauldron, fully 
a mile in width, and enclosed with precipitous walls of indurated mud. 
From several orifices volumes of steam rose into the air, and when the 
vapor cleared away for a moment glimpses of a mass of boiling mud were 
obtained. Before the eruption the mountain top had terminated in three 
peaks. Of these the highest had an elevation of about 5,800 feet. The peak 
destroyed was the middle one, which was rather smaller than the other two. 

"The explosion was caused by steam; there was neither fire nor lava of any 
kind. It was, in fact, nothing more nor less than a gigantic boiler 
explosion. The whole top and one side of Sho- Bandai-san had been blown 
into the air in a lateral direction, and the earth of the mountain was 
converted by the escaping steam, at the moment of the explosion, into 
boiling mud, part of which was projected into the air to fall at a long 
distance, and then take the form of an overflowing river, which rushed 
with vast rapidity and covered the country to a depth of from 20 to 150 
feet. Thirty square miles of country were thus devastated." 

In the devastated lowlands and buried villages below and on the slopes of 
the mountain many lives were lost. From the survivors Mr. Norman gathered 
some information, enabling him to describe the main features of the 
catastrophe. We append a brief outline of his narrative: 

MR. NORMAN'S NARRATIVE 

"At a few minutes past 8 o'clock in the morning a frightful noise was 
heard by the inhabitants of a village ten miles distant from the crater. 
Some of them instinctively took to flight, but before they could run much 
more than a hundred yards the light of day was suddenly changed into a 
darkness more intense than that of midnight; a shower of blinding hot 
ashes and sand poured down upon them; the ground was shaken with 
earthquakes, and explosion followed explosion, the last being the most 
violent of all. Many fugitives, as well as people in the houses, were 
overwhelmed by the deluge of mud, none of the fugitives, when overtaken by 
death, being more than two hundred yards from the village." From the 
statements made by those fortunate enough to escape with their lives, and 
from a personal examination of the ground, Mr. Norman inferred that the 
mud must have been flung fully six miles through the air and then have 
poured in a torrent along the ground for four miles further. All this was 
done in less than five minutes, so that "millions of tons of boiling mud 
were hurled over the country at the rate of two miles a minute." 

The velocity of the mud torrent may perhaps be overestimated, but in its 
awful suddenness this catastrophe was evidently one with few equals. The 
cone destroyed may have been largely composed of rather fine ashes and 
scoriae, which was almost instantaneously converted into mud by the 
condensing steam and the boiling water ejected. The quantity of water thus 
discharged must have been enormous. 

Of the remaining volcanic regions of the Pacific, the New Zealand islands 
present some of the most striking examples of activity. All the central 
parts, indeed, of the northern island of the group are of a highly 
volcanic character. There is here a mountain named Tongariro, on whose 
snow-clad summit is a deep crater, from which volcanic vapors are seen to 
issue, and which exhibits other indications of having been in a state of 
greater activity at a not very remote period of time. There is also, at no 
great distance from this mountain, a region containing numerous funnel-
shaped chasms, emitting hot water, or steam, or sulphurous vapors, or 
boiling mud. The earthquakes in New Zealand had probably their origin in 
this volcanic focus. 

THE NEW ZEALAND VOLCANOES 

Tongariro has a height of about 6,500 feet, while Egmont, 8,270 feet in 
height, is a perfect cone with a perpetual cap of snow. There are many 
other volcanic mountains, and also great numbers of mud volcanoes, hot 
springs and geysers. It is for the latter that the island is best known to 
geologists. Their waters are at or near the boiling point and contain 
silica in abundance. 

At a place called Rotomahana, in the vicinity of Mount Tarawera, there was 
formerly a lake of about one hundred and twenty acres in area, which was 
in its way one of the most remarkable bodies of water upon the earth. 
Formerly, we say, for this lake no longer exists, it having been destroyed 
by the very forces to which it owed its fame. Its waters were maintained 
nearly at the boiling point by the continual accession of boiling water 
from numerous springs. The most abundant of those sources was situated at 
the height of about 100 feet above the level of the lake. It kept 
continually filled an oval basin about 250 feet in circumference-- the 
margins of which were fringed all round with beautiful pure white 
stalactites, formed by deposits of silica, with which the hot water was 
strongly impregnated. At various stages below the principal spring were 
several others, that contributed to feed the lake at the bottom, in the 
centre of which was a small island. Minute bubbles continually escaped 
from the surface of the water with a hissing sound, and the sand all round 
the lake was at a high temperature. If a stick was thrust into it, very 
hot vapors would ascend from the hole. Not far from this lake were several 
small basins filled with tepid water, which was very clear, and of a blue 
color. 

The conditions here were of a kind with those to which are due the great 
geysers of Iceland and the Yellowstone Park, but different in the fact 
that instead of being intermittent and throwing up jets at intervals, the 
springs allowed the water to flow from them in a continuous stream. 

THE PINK AND WHITE TERRACES 

The silicious incrustations left by the overflow from the large pool had 
made a series of terraces, two to six feet high, with the appearance of 
being hewn from white or pink marble; each of the basins containing a 
similar azure water. These terraces covered an area of about three acres, 
and looked like a series of cataracts changed into stone, each edge being 
fringed with a festoon of delicate stalactites. The water contained about 
eighty-five per cent. of silica, with one or two per cent of iron alumina, 
and a little alkali. 

There were no more beautiful products of nature upon the earth than those 
"pink and white terraces," as they were called. The hot springs of the 
Yellowstone have produced formations resembling them, but not their equal 
in fairy-like charm. One series of these terraced pools and cascades was 
of the purest white tint, the other of the most delicate pink, the waters 
topping over the edge of each pool and falling in a miniature cascade to 
the one next below, thus keeping the edges built up by a continual renewal 
of the silicious incrustation. But all their beauty could not save them 
from utter and irremediable destruction by the forces below the earth's 
surface. 

On June 9, 1886, a great volcanic disturbance began in the Auckland Lake 
region with a tremendous earthquake, followed during the night by many 
others. At seven the next morning a lead-covered cloud of pumice sand, 
advancing from the south, burst and discharged showers of fine dust. The 
range of Mount Tarawera seemed to be in full volcanic activity, including 
some craters supposed to be extinct, and embracing an area of one hundred 
and twenty miles by twenty. 

The showers of dust were so thick as to turn day into night for nearly two 
days. Some lives were lost, and several villages were destroyed, these 
being covered ten feet deep with ashes, dust and clayey mud. The volcanic 
phenomena were of the most violent character, and the whole island appears 
to have been more or less convulsed. Mount Tarawera is said to be five 
hundred feet higher than before the eruption; glowing masses were thrown 
up into the air, and tongues of fiery hue, gases or illuminated vapors, 
five hundred feet wide, towered up one thousand feet high. The mountain 
was 2,700 feet in height. 

TARAWERA IN ERUPTION 

This eruption presented a spectacle of rarely-equalled grandeur. To 
travelers and strangers the greatest resultant loss will be the 
destruction of those world-famous curiosities, the white and pink 
terraces, in the vicinity of Lake Rotomahana and the region of the famous 
geysers. The natives have a superstition that the eruption of the extinct 
Tarawera was caused by the profanation of foreign footsteps. It was to 
them a sacred place, and its crater a repository for their dead. The first 
earthquake occurred in this region. One side of the mountain fell in, and 
then the eruption began. The basin of the lake was broken up and 
disappeared, but again reappeared as a boiling mud cauldron; craters burst 
out in various places, and the beautiful terraces were no more. After the 
first day the violence gradually diminished, and in a week had ceased. 
Very possibly another lake will be formed, and in time other terraces; but 
it is hardly within the range of probability that the beauty of the lost 
terraces will ever be paralleled. 

In this eruption, as usual, we find the earthquake preceding the volcanic 
outburst. New Zealand, like the Philippines, Java and the Japanese 
Islands, is situated over a great earth-fissure or line of weakness. 
Subsidence or dislocation from tensile strain of the crust took place, and 
the influx of water to new regions of heated strata may have developed the 
explosive force. The earthquake and the volcano worked together here, as 
they frequently do, unfortunately in this case destroying one of the most 
beautiful scenes on the surface of the globe. 

THE ANTARCTIC VOLCANOES 

Much further south, on the frozen shore of Victoria Land in the Antarctic 
regions, Sir James Ross, in 1841, sailing in his discovery ships the 
Erebus and Terror, discovered two great volcanic mountains, which he named 
after those two vessels. Mount Erebus is continually covered, from top to 
bottom, with snow and glaciers. The mountain is about 12,000 feet high, 
and although the snow reaches to the very edge of the crater, there rise 
continually from the summit immense volumes of volcanic fumes, illuminated 
by the glare of glowing lava beneath them. The vapors ascend to an 
estimated height of 2,200 feet above the top of the mountain.