m whose
narrative we may gather that at this time there was only one large
crater, and that the central cone of Vesuvius had not as yet been
upraised. In A.D. 472 an eruption occurred of such magnitude as to cover
all Europe with fine dust, and spread alarm even at Constantinople.

(_g._) _Eruption of 1631._--In December 1631 occurred the great
convulsion whose memorials are written widely on the western face of
Vesuvius in ruined villages. This eruption left layers of ashes over
hundreds of miles of country, or heaps of mud swept down by hot water
floods from the crater; the crater itself having been dissipated in the
convulsion. Braccini, who examined the mountain not long before this
eruption, found apparently no cone (or mount) like that of the modern
Vesuvius. He states that the crater was five miles in circumference,
about a thousand paces deep (or in sloping descent), and its sides
covered with forest trees and brushwood, while at the bottom there was a
plain on which cattle grazed.[7] It would seem that the mountain had at
this time enjoyed a long interval of rest, and that it had reverted to
very much the same state in which it was at the period of the first
eruption, when the flanks were peopled by inhabitants living in fancied
security. But six months of violent earthquakes, which grew more violent
towards the close of 1631, heralded the eruption which took place in
December, accompanied by terrific noises from within the interior of the
mountain. The inhabitants of the coast were thus warned of the
approaching danger, and had several days to arrange for their safety;
but in the end, a great part of Torre del Greco was destroyed, and a
like fate overtook Resina and Granatello, with a loss of life reported
at 18,000 persons. During the eruption clouds condensed into tempests of
rain, and hot water from the mountain, forming deluges of mud, swept
down the sides, and reached even to Nola and the Apennines. Nor was the
sea unmoved. It retired during the violent earthquakes, and then
returned full thirty paces beyond its former limits.

Not indeed until near the close of the seventeenth century is there any
evidence that the central cone of Vesuvius was in existence; but in
October 1685 an eruption occurred which is recorded by Sorrentino,
during which was erected "a new mountain within, and higher than the old
one, and visible from Naples," a statement evidently referable to the
existing cone--so that it is litt