the small town of Massa di Somma. One of the
peculiarities of this eruption was the great fluidity of the lava;
another was the never-ceasing thundering of the mountain. During that
day we observed several violent explosions in the great stream of lava:
we thought from the enormous volumes of black smoke emitted on these
occasions that new craters had burst out--some below the level of the
Observatory; but that can hardly have been the case. My daughters at
night drove to Portici, and went up to the top of a house, where the
noise seems to have been appalling; but they told me they did not gain
anything by going to Portici, nor did they see the eruption better than
I did who remained at Santa Lucia, for you get too much below the
mountain on going near. On Sunday, 28th, I was surprised at the extreme
darkness, and on looking out of window saw men walking with umbrellas;
Vesuvius was emitting such an enormous quantity of ashes, or rather fine
black sand, that neither land, sea, nor sky was visible; the fall was a
little less dense during the day, but at night it was worse than ever.
Strangers seemed to be more alarmed at this than at the eruption, and
certainly the constant loud roaring of Vesuvius was appalling enough
amidst the darkness and gloom of the falling ashes. The railroad was
crowded with both natives and foreigners, escaping; on the other hand,
crowds came from Rome to see the eruption. We were not at all afraid,
for we considered that the danger was past when so great an eruption had
acted as a kind of safety-valve to the pent-up vapours. But a silly
report got about that an earthquake was to take place, and many persons
passed the night in driving or walking about the town, avoiding narrow
streets. The mountain was quite veiled for some days by vapour and
ashes, but I could see the black smoke and silvery mass above it. While
looking at this, a magnificent column, black as jet, darted with
inconceivable violence and velocity to an immense height; it gave a
grand idea of the power that was still in action in the fiery caverns
below.

Immense injury has been done by this eruption, and much more would have
been done had not the lava flowed to a great extent over that of 1868.
Still the streams ran through Massa di Somma, San Sebastiano, and other
villages scattered about the country, overwhelming fields, woods,
vineyards, and houses. The ashes, too, have not only destroyed this
year's crops, but killed both vi