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