Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1871 — A Night on Mount Vesuvius During an Eruption. [ARTICLE]

A Night on Mount Vesuvius During an Eruption.

Tiie Boston Journal reprints the following very interesting account of a night passed on Mount Vesuvius duringanerup tion, from the Naples and Florence Oberver of April 15: • “ This was, by far, the most thrilling and eventful night of my life. My interest in the volcano had been raised to enthusiasm by the outbreak of its torrent of lava on the evening of the 3i instant, against the opinion of experienced residents. During a late walk on that magnificent road, the Corso Vittoria EmaDuele, which Overlooks the finest city aud bay and the most charming scenery I ever beheld, 1 heard a succession of violent explosions from tho crater, the distance being about twelve miles. Similar reports were . frequent on the morning of the 9th, and iu the afternoon a party of us—among whom were Mr. W. W. Griscom, a sound scholar and scientist from Philadelphia, and his pupil, Master S. C. Stanton, of Boston, now a resident of London—started for the scene. To omit the amusing incidents of the journey, we reached the stream of lava beforo sunset, and the summit before dark. We had a close view of the new crater, at the foot of the new cone, which, having no accumulation of ejected matter, i. e., no cone of stone and ashes, shows clearly how it was first formed. A thick bed of solid rock seems to have been rent by the pent-up forces beneath, and forced upward into a vertical position, like the jaws of a monster, broad at the base aud tapering at the lop. Three or four of these vast rocks form the chimney, through which pour volumes of steam and smoke, roaring flames and lava, with great violence, as if from a mighty conflagration under intense pressure below. Qur party, was in haste to descend,-as the night drew on, but I was not satisfied, and, being on the ground, I resolved to stay till morning; and I was well repaid ’.for my trouble and privation: It is impossible to do justice to such'A subject in a brief article. There are really three separate throats, so to speak, from- the depths below, quite distinct in their mode of action. Two are within the main crater at the summit, aud on a line with the new one abovo named, which is near the north base of the great summit, or apex cone, and whose action I have described. The middle throat or register is the only one that was violent in its action, and through the night, at longer or shorter intervals, it was terrific. After brief periods of rest it broke forth again, with a tremendous -explosion, as sudden and intense as that of the heaviest cannon, but many, many times vaster and grander, as if a magazine of powder or nitro-glycerine had suddenly been ignited far down in the deep bowels of tho earth. Sometimes one, oftener several reports, came in quick succession. Sometimes the first was loudest, but often the second and third reports followed with increasing rapidity aud violence and with much greater intensity than the first. At all the explosions of this opening immense volleys of glowing stones and fed-hot cinders were thrown to the height of from one to two hundred feet, spreading into magnificent bouquets of great brilliancy, mhny of these stones, souit: of large size, failing outside the crater, ajpd rollingdown the cone in glowing fragmentt td the base. Sometimes the explosions were preceded by subterranean rumblings far down in the deep caverns of the mountain, accompanied by a trembling of the solid frame to its very base. “ The action of the third spout or register was wholly different from the other two. There was no violent explosion, as of pent-up power, as in the case of that just describee!, though, like that, its delivery was fitful; blowing out at intervals, and never uniform, continuous and unexplpsive, likethc first described new crater outside of the cone, whose flow was a copious compressed volume., of smoke and flame, as from a well-fed furnace, aud with no noise,except that of tjie constant roaring of the flame. The third register made a great blowing noise, like an immense ftise, and very much like the noise of an ascending rocket of immense proportions. It threw out volumes of black smoke and greater bouquets of glowing cinders, but with much less violence than its companion, as if the opening were much larger—so much larger in proportion to its dis-charge-as to divest it of all explosive violence. I should regard this as the old and nearly spent crater. There are many other very interesting topics that should be noticed iu ibis connection, but I havo already intruded too far, both on your space and the patience of your readers. “ Respectfully, F. L. Capen.”