charms, beauties, features of im-per'-illed, put in danger. WE stood on a narrow, black rim, and at our feet were aware of a great hollow filled with smoke and mist. Stones thrown into this abyss produced a succession of cracking and rumbling noises, ending with an explosion at a distance, which showed the bottom of the crater to be a good way down. Else, the huge gulf was silent; and we could see nothing of the red-hot ditches and fiery bubbles of which we had heard so much, nothing but a dismal damp cloud in which we shivered, and were glad to creep for shelter into a roofless hut. The guide offered to conduct us into the crater, but we did not like the look of the enterprise when so little appeared likely to reward our pains; already, we were half-choked, as well as blinded, by the sulphurous fumes. It took us twenty minutes to walk round the crater, using some care to keep from slipping down the treacherous edge. At the end of that time it seemed no more disposed to reveal to us its strange charms, and we were too cold to wait longer. Vesuvius was in the sulks. Our visit had been most unfortunately timed. When we descended the cone, which we did in three or four minutes, sliding down the yielding sides, ankle deep in ashes, with our poles to steady us, scarcely had we reached the lava fields at the foot of the cone, than the mist began to roll away; and before we were off the mountain slopes, both its peaks were standing out sharp and stern against the clear sky. Vesuvius was in repose, and from this picture we may form a general idea of most volcanoes. But what is its aspect when the sleeping forces within awake and bestir themselves? Nothing more awful is displayed to the eye of man than the effects of an eruption. An oppressive sultriness and stillness of the air, it is said, sometimes give warning to the inhabitants of what is to come. Subterranean growlings and thunderings may be heard; perhaps wells and pools in the neighbourhood dry up, mysteriously vanishing into the recesses of the earth. Suddenly the mountain shakes, and a fearful explosion bursts forth from its fuming top. A column of steaming smoke-here white as snow, there black as coal-rushes up thousands of feet into the air, till it is heaped into an immeasurable pile, beside which the huge mountain itself appears a mole-hill, and, at a great height, spreads out in curling clouds, so as often to take the shape of a vast umbrella. Forked lightnings dart forth from this "pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night," and angry flames seem to play incessantly round its base. With the white vapour is mingled a black fountain of ashes, cinders, and sand, that either tumble back into the crater; to be again hurled out, or are carried in clouds, dark as the shades of night, to fall upon the surrounding country. Red-hot stones and other missiles are flung out far and near, bursting in the air like shells; windows and roofs are broken for many a mile; cattle and men are struck down by the bombs of this artillery, or suffocated in the falling ashes. The brushwood of the ravines smoulders unnoticed in a puny blaze; the leaves of trees are parched and scorched by the heat, if not stripped off by the fiery shower. The vapour from the mountain, condensing as rain—or its snowy covering melted by the red-hot ashes-pours down side by side with the burning streams of lava that the crater continues to vomit on its steaming flanks. The fields below are soon wrapped in destruction, and the poor people may be seen flying from their imperilled homes―if, indeed, they dare to fly under the deadly hail-or gathering in their temples with vain invocations to the idols who put forth no hand to stay this calamity. Night comes on, adding grandeur and horror to the scene, in the lurid glare wide-spread upon land and sea, and a glow cast over the whole face of the sky. Wonders of the Volcano. Abyss.-Literally means without bottom. It comes from the Greek a, not; and bussos, bottom. In the New Testament it is sometimes rendered by deep (Luke viii. 31), and sometimes by bottomless pit (Rev. ix. 1). Crater. This is a pure Greek word, meaning a goblet or cup. It was, then, applied from the resemblance in shape to the cup-like hollow on the summit of a vol cano. Pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night.—An allusion to Numbers ix. 16. EXERCISES. 1. What is meant by producing a succession of noises; we did not like the look of the enterprise; Vesuvius was in the sulks; subterranean thunderings may be heard? 2. Give the etymology of conduct, disposed, reveal, circumference, enclosed, confusion, semblance, aspect, recesses. 3. Explain fully the origin and meaning of abyss, crater, lava, missiles. 4. What are crystals, sulphurous fumes, an upheaval, a sulphur crust? What other expression is used in the lesson for sulphur crust? What is meant by the expression, "The gentleman stormed and fumed?" Up from the South at break of day, And wider still those billows of war |