down the valley on two sides, ashes were shot thousands of feet in the
air and the sea rose for miles. More than 20,000,000 cubic feet of
lava was ejected in a single day.

Since 1879 Vesuvius has been variously active there being two
eruptions of note in 1900 and two others in 1903. But that of 1905 was
more violent than any since 1872. Red hot stones hurled 1,600 feet
above the cone dropped down the flanks of the mountain with deafening
sound. One stone thrown out weighed two tons, while 1,844 violent
explosions were recorded in a single day by the instruments of the
seismic observatory.

The cog railroad running nearly to the top has been badly damaged a
number of times in recent years and the occupants of the
meteorological observatory on or near the summit have had several
narrow escapes.

This institution is situated about a mile and a half from the cone,
near the foot of the rope railway ascending that troubled apex. It is
a handsome edifice of white stone and can be seen at a great distance
against the black background of lava. It stands on the side toward
Naples, on the top of a conspicuous ridge 2,080 feet above the level
of the sea. On each side of this ridge flows a river of lava during
eruptions, but the building has withstood all, unscathed, as yet.

An observer is on duty, night and day, even during the most violent
outbursts. During the late one, when a sheet of red-hot lava glowed on
either side of the ridge and when fiery projectiles fell all about,
the post was not deserted. Inside, mounted upon piers penetrating the
ground, are delicate instruments whose indicating hands, resting
against record sheets of paper, trace every movement made by the
shuddering mountain. One sign by which these great outbursts may
almost always be forecast is the falling of water in the wells of the
neighboring villages.

The Vesuvian volcanic region, like that of AEtna, is partly land and
partly sea, including all of the Bay of Naples, sometimes called "the
crater," lying at the very foot of Vesuvius, with a circuit of
fifty-two miles and the metropolis at the extreme northern corner.

The whole base of the mountain is skirted by a series of villages
where abide 100,000 souls--birds nesting in the cannon's mouth.
Between these settlements and even above, within the jaws of the fiery
demon, the tourist sees scattered huts, tent shaped of straw
interwoven.

A road twenty miles long, commencing at Naples, extends
so