NEARLY twenty years have passed since I went up Vesuvius, but the impressions which such a first experience makes on one's mind are such as not easily to be lost,

It was a lovely morning as we drove along the shores of the Bay of Naples to Resina, which may be called a suburb of the capital. The deeply blue waters of the bay, studded with islands and fringed with towns and villas as far as the eye could reach, the fine panorama of the city with its castles and palaces, the noble mountain itself, its sloping base green with fields and vineyards, and the steep dark cone half-hidden in graceful wreaths of white vapour, all formed beneath the cloudless Italian sky a picture of peace and beauty where nothing spoke of the destructive fury that has again and again laid waste this smiling scene, covering it with blackness, horror, and ruin. Yet an eruption from the foot of the mountain had lately taken place, which came near destroying one of the largest towns on the bay; and not one of these gay villages, under which the homes and the labours of men have lain buried for ages, can make sure at any hour that the same fate is not brewing for it in the mysterious caverns beneath and above.

Leaving our carriage near the shaft which gives entrance to the ruins of Herculaneum, we provided ourselves with a guide and horses, also with long poles to assist our ascent up the cone, which must be done on foot. Miserable horses they were to look at, and hardly to be urged out of a walk by any persuasion of ours; but it must be said that they carried us gallantly over ground where an

English hunter would be likely to break his own neck and his rider's. Thus equipped, we set out amid the swarm of beggars which seemed to settle like flies upon every stranger in this country.

Ascending by narrow, stony lanes, we passed through a number of vineyards and gardens, and soon came out upon the fields of lava behind, here for the most part fresh and pitchy black. To what familiar object may one liken this slaggy surface? To a desert of frozen sponge, cracked and torn, swollen with foul and gritty ice, or it might be compared to the charred trunk of some wrinkled and gnarled tree, seen through a microscope.

The road was a mere track, winding over slippery rocks, and by jagged clefts, where the utmost caution was needed to pick the way; the former road, passable in carriages, had been destroyed by a recent eruption. As we advanced, the lava, which, lower down, had lain in smoother and less broken masses, began to present a rusty and crumbling appearance, diversified here and there by patches of brown cinders, or of sulphur encrusting the edges of a fissure. I took up a handful of these ashes, which were so hot that I made haste to throw them down again. guide thrust a dry bush into a crevice, from which presently burst a crackle of flame that made us start for a moment; we had not thought we were

Our

so near the subterranean smithy, forgetting that the recent eruptions had been on the lower sides. of the mountain.

It was

At last we reached the foot of the cone. a mighty mound of ashes, which, rising darkly and almost perpendicularly into the mist, looked at first sight impossible to climb, and might have proved so if it had not been for a road of loose stones and rough lava laid up its side to the summit. In the soft, warm ashes we sunk knee deep and slipped back at every step; on the stones we were obliged to crawl rather than to climb. What with the heat of the ground and the sharp edges, the soles of my boots were entirely destroyed before I got down again.

Sending back our horses, we now addressed ourselves to the last stage of the ascent. It was a trying pull. Again and again we had to sit down in the chill mist, reeking with perspiration as we were. It was too thick to let us see more than a few yards around, and we knew not when this tread-mill was to end, while our wiry little guide, who seemed to take it so coolly, kept crying Allons! (Let us go) and telling us that the top was just at hand. Then we would take heart and labour on, again to fall exhausted. I have climbed a good many mountains in different countries, but I don't think I ever did a stiffer piece of work. In some half-a-dozen spurts, however, we did it at last, and suddenly

found ourselves standing on the summit of

Vesuvius.

Wonders of the Volcano.

Vesuvius.-A famous burning mountain in Italy, behind the Bay of Naples.

Panorama.-Literally, all the view; hence a picture of all the objects in nature that are visible from a single point-derived from Greek pan, all; and orama, a

view.

Herculaneum.-One of the towns buried in the eruption of Vesuvius, A.D. 79. The ruins are being dug into, hence the expression in the lesson-"near the shaft which gives entrance to the ruins of Herculaneum.” Swarms of beggars.-Almost all the Italian towns are infested with swarms of beggars who dun travellers for alms.

Lava.-The molten matter thrown out by a volcano during an eruption.

Allons.-Let us go, or Come along.

EXERCISES.

1. Where is Vesuvius? Why is a burning mountain called a volcano? Give the origin of this word. What is lava? What do you know about Herculaneum? Mention any other cities overthrown at the same time.

2. Give the meaning of these phrases-(a) Resina is a suburb of the capital; (b) Thus equipped; (c) The utmost caution was needed to pick the way; (d) Sulphur encrusted the edges of the fissure; (e) The subterranean smithy.

3. Give the derivation of suburb. From this derivation explain what a suburb originally was. Give the derivation of eruption. From this derivation, explain the meaning of disrupt, disruption, abrupt, corruption. What is meant by the corruption of the judges, the corruption of the grave?