Part 15

Going down the mountain was much easier than going up. We did not go down at the same place where we made the ascent, but went a little to one side, where we could walk down through the ashes. The first step or so is a little trying to the nerves, but after two or three steps you acquire confidence and then let yourself out. All you need to do is to stand erect, throw your head back, and start off, putting one foot before the other in a dignified sort of way. The ashes are generally dry and dusty, but at the time of my descent they had just been moistened by a slight fall of rain, so that no dust arose from them. Our feet settled in the ashes up to the ankles, and at every step we went forward six or eight yards. It took us an hour and a quarter to climb the mountain, and we came down in seven minutes, including a halt on the way to make love to an English girl, who had slipped, and was unable to pick herself up. We assisted her to her feet, and lost a minute or two in our work of gallantry.

[Sidenote: RACING IN THE LAVA BEDS.]

A countryman of ours who attempted to come down just behind us was not quite as successful as ourselves. He managed to pitch forward and turn a very pretty somersault; but the exercise did not improve his personal appearance or his temper. When he brought himself to rights, and reached the place where the horses were standing, he was very much dilapidated, and as cross as a bear with a chewed ear.

It is hard work to ascend Vesuvius, but it is jolly fun to come down.

We mounted our animals and came away. On the steepest part of the descending road, we tried to get up a race, thinking that the laws of gravitation would help us. Part of the beasts were induced to run, but there were two or three out of which no speed could be made faster than a walk. Even a descent as steep as the roof of an ordinary house had no temptations for them, and I wanted to try the experiment of flinging them over a precipice, to see whether they could be started into anything like a respectable pace. I have my doubts about it; and had they been flung from a perpendicular cliff, I think they would have come down through the air as majestically and as calmly as a parachute descends from a balloon.

When we reached Resina, we rode to Herculaneum. The modern discovery of this city resulted from digging a well in the year 1709. The site of the city had been lost, owing to the great depth—nearly one hundred feet—of the solid material which covered it. Properly speaking, Herculaneum was destroyed by liquid mud, rather than by burning lava. Since the destruction of the city, there have been six different overflows of lava, so that for all practical purposes the site is covered with this solid material.

When the well referred to was being made, the workmen came upon another well; an ancient affair, nearly eighty feet from the surface. Several works of art were brought to light, but for some reason the government of Naples prohibited the explorations. Thirty years later, they have been renewed, and have since been prosecuted at different intervals. At the present time the excavations are continued with much zeal, and startling discoveries are being made.

As was the case with Pompeii, so over ancient Herculaneum a new city has been built. Underground passages have been explored like those of a mine, without uncovering them to the light of day. One great difficulty of the excavations exists in the fact that whilst Pompeii, at the time of the great eruption, was covered with ashes, Herculaneum was covered with liquid lava, which, if not exposed to the air, requires sometimes two or three years to cool off, but then it is almost as hard as flag-stone. It is easily to be seen that under such difficulties the excavations but slowly progressed; the more so, as the digging has to be done very carefully, so as not to mar the relics, for which the excavation properly is done.

It is not often that articles are found at a height above four feet from the floor, as their weight naturally carried them downwards through the soft mass of ashes. The digging is therefore rapidly prosecuted until the uniform above level has been attained. After this, the workmen carefully examine every piece of lava which they extract by small portions. As soon as the experienced eye of any worker recognizes the indications of a mold being formed in the lava, labor near that point is stopped, and tamping irons are cautiously inserted to make two or three vents in the cavity. Then liquid plaster is poured in; and after being left sufficiently long to harden, the lava is taken away, and the cast is removed.

[Sidenote: A YOUNG MAN AND A YOUNG LADY.]

In this way some curious facts have been brought to light. Two skeletons were found in close embrace, the teeth perfect, indicating youth in its prime; skeletons of a young man and maid. They had fallen together in their flight, and death had wedded them. There was a mother with her three children, hand-in-hand, who tried vainly to outrun death. Perhaps the mother, singly, might have done it, but she could not leave her children. Plenty of food for sad thought is furnished in remembering that at Herculaneum and Pompeii, six hundred skeletons have already been exhumed!—many in such positions and circumstances as to suggest very touching episodes accompanying the final catastrophe.

The skeleton of a dove was found in a niche overlooking the garden of a house. She had kept to her post, notwithstanding the shower of hot, death-dealing lava. She sat on her nest through all the storm, shielding the egg which was taken from beneath her.

[Sidenote: THE STREETS OF HERCULANEUM.]

The streets of Herculaneum are all paved with lava, just as the streets of Naples are paved to-day. One street is more than thirty feet wide, and furnished with raised sidewalks. The houses were mostly of brick, and in general appearance and structure like those of Pompeii, which we described before. Magnificent pieces of art were taken out of them, but it is to be deplored that the paintings, as a rule, fade as soon as they are exposed to the light of day. Many statues and busts and pieces of furniture claim our highest admiration; they are admirably executed, and evince a highly-cultivated taste. Various musical and surgical instruments, and boxes, and many utensils belonging to the kitchen and toilet, call our attention, especially those of the kitchen, the utensils being very variegated, and mostly manufactured of copper lined with silver. Many imitations of precious stones have been found; they naturally excite the curiosity of the chemist, who is eager to know how the old Romans produced them. Most of these articles are now exhibited in the Museum of Naples, where the paintings are kept under glass, which precaution prevents the fading of the brilliant colors as much as possible.

Herculaneum possessed a theater, which claims our greatest attention, as it is the most important building discovered. It was able to contain eight thousand persons. Its walls are highly decorated, and its floors and pillars were constructed of different colored marble.

[Sidenote: SIGNOR FIORELLI.]

Signor Fiorelli, the Italian engineer who supervises the excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii, claims that Pompeii did not contain more than 12,000 inhabitants at the time of the eruption, although it has generally been supposed that the population was from 20,000 to 50,000.

Eight gates have been discovered, and the roads outside of them are lined on each side with tombs of considerable size and architectural pretension. The street of tombs, before the gate of Herculaneum, was probably the principal burial place of the city; and the sepulchral monuments adorning it, give evidence of the refined taste and great wealth of the prominent inhabitants. The streets, which, for the most part, run in regular lines, are, with some exceptions, barely wide enough to admit a single vehicle. Five of the main streets have been partially or wholly traced, and with these a regular system of minor streets appear to have been connected. The thoroughfares, with a single exception, terminate in or traverse the western quarter of the city, which is the only part yet completely explored.

The Italian government at present liberally assisting the excavations, the space now laid bare measures about 670,000 square feet, or one-third the whole area occupied by the city. Signor Fiorelli calculates that, making the excavations on an average twenty-five feet deep, and employing eighty-one laborers daily, the whole city will be unearthed in 1947.

Our descent into Herculaneum was by a staircase opening from a small house, where we found a number of guides in uniform. We paid our two francs each, and were remitted to the care of a guide, who pretended to speak English, but, to our great amusement, we soon found out that the whole extent of his English vocabulary amounted to: “Look here!” which precluded every explanation given in Italian. His knowledge of English only tended to make his Italian sound very funny indeed.

After we had seen all that was noteworthy, we mounted the steps into the open air, and returned to Naples. When passing Mt. Vesuvius, our guide told us, that indications of an eruption had been observed, and really in the following year the eruptions came. It did much damage and attracted many visitors to Naples, but it did not equal in extent or magnificence the great eruption of 1872. This outbreak began on the 23d of April, and was at once the grandest and most terrible of all the eruptions that have occurred during this generation.

[Sidenote: THE ERUPTION OF 1872.]

For some days previous to the outbreak the mountain gave indications of approaching activity, and when the eruption began, hundreds of people observed it from the old lava beds between the observatory and the town of Resina, and some of them remained there during the whole of the night of April 25. Early the next morning two great seams opened under these spectators’ feet; hot sulphurous vapors enveloped them, and as they sought safety in flight, great rivers of lava rushed out of the newly-opened craters, and threatened the frightened sight-seers with speedy destruction. Some found the earth under them too hot to be walked upon, and, falling down, perished where they were. Others were suffocated by the gaseous emanations from the earth, and still others were so injured that they died after reaching a place of safety.

In the towns and villages around the volcano the destruction of property was very great, but the people generally escaped by timely flight.

In all the towns the terror was wide-spread. Nine distinct craters were opened, and lava streams, some of them sixteen feet deep, ran down the sides of the mountains, destroying everything in their paths. Several of the villages were almost entirely buried in ashes, as ancient Pompeii was in the eruption previously described. Even in Naples, people were almost smothered with the shower of dust, cinders, and sand that poured down for days. Every window was kept closed, and every traveller through the streets was compelled to protect himself by carrying an umbrella; and there were serious fears, on the part of the timid, that the beautiful Italian city of to-day was to play the tragic part of Pompeii in a repetition of the terrible scenes of eighteen hundred years ago.

Many people lost their lives, some in consequence of remaining to protect their property, and others from venturing too near out of motives of curiosity. At one time a group of fifty or more people were surrounded by the lava, and burned to death in sight of those who were powerless to aid them. They were standing on a little hill, and did not see, until too late, that the lava had flowed around it, and placed them on an island, as it were, with a red-hot river all around them. Many others were burned by the lava and the hot blasts which came from it in various parts of its course. A gentleman who witnessed the eruption thus describes the scene in a letter written from Naples on the 27th of April, 1872:—

[Sidenote: STORY OF AN EYE-WITNESS.]

“Yesterday morning I went out to get a carriage to go up Mount Vesuvius, and on my way I was asked by a respectable looking man in the street if I had heard the news of the night. He then told me that hundreds of people, who had gone up the night before to see the burning lava in the Atrio di Cavallo, were dead. I had seen the mountain at eleven o’clock the night before, when there was a stream of lava running from the top of the cone into the Atrio—that is, the valley between Vesuvius and the adjoining hill, the Somma, where there seemed to be a lake of fire. Later in the night there was a tremendous eruption, a large crater opening suddenly between the Observatory and the Atrio di Cavallo, across the path of the visitors, it is said, of a mile in diameter. We started from Naples at eight o’clock. The view of the mountain was magnificent. An enormous cloud of dense white smoke was ascending to an immense height above the mountain, like great fleeces of cotton wool, quite unlike any cloud I ever saw. I could see the lava rushing from several openings to the right of and above the Observatory, but below the cone. The lava was still flowing from the cone into the Atrio, but no ash or dust was thrown up. We drove on to Resina, where the population were in fearful excitement, not knowing what to do, and apparently apprehensive of instant death—everybody making signs to us, and telling us to go back. We went on to the Piazza di Pugliano, where we were stopped and told that no one was allowed to go up the mountain, by order of the police. However, after some expostulation, I took a guide on the box and started again.

[Sidenote: AN ISLAND OF FIRE.]

“A few minutes afterwards we met a cart bringing down a dead body, and as we went on we saw other bodies—at least twelve—of which one only appeared to be living. They were frightfully burned on the face and hands, and some, which were carried on chairs, in a sitting position, were very ghastly objects. Further on we met people—officials, apparently—coming down, all warning us to go back. At last, when we had arrived at an elbow of the road not far below the Observatory, we met the officer who has charge of the Observatory, who said we could not go on; that the danger was imminent; that the lava was running across and down the road before us; that he had orders from the prefect of Naples to prevent any one ascending, and that we could not pass. My coachman was getting a little anxious, though I will do him the justice to say he was not afraid; so I consented not to take the carriage beyond a turn in the road above us to the right, especially as I did not wish to meet the lava in a narrow road where we could not turn the carriage. We left the carriage there, and ascended on foot with the guide by a path straight up the mountain-side.

“At length we stood on the edge of the flat ground reaching to the foot of the cone. Currents of lava were running down on both sides of us far below; the craters from which they flowed were hidden by the smoke; clouds of smoke were ascending from the top of the cone, and the lava still pouring down the Atrio. The roar of the mountain, which we had first heard at Portici was now tremendous, continuous, and unlike anything else I ever heard,—millions of peals of thunder rolling at the same time,—when suddenly, about noon, there was a cessation, with a low, rolling sound; and one heard the ticking and rippling of the lava currents pouring down the hill-sides below. Then, in about a minute, came a deafening roar, shaking the ground under our feet; and a new crater burst forth just on the other side of the Observatory, as it seemed to us, and dense clouds of ashes and stones were thrown up into the air on the left hand of, and mingling with, the great white cloud, making a great contrast with the dark-brown dust and ashes, which rose perpendicularly to an immense height. The roaring continued and kept on increasing till it became deafening, and I began to think it might injure our ears. We staid there about an hour and a half.

[Sidenote: A MAGNIFICENT SCENE.]

“The scene was magnificent, the smoke occasionally clearing away and giving us the view towards the Atrio, that towards the cone being always clear; but as some of our party fancied that the ground might open under our feet, and that we might find ourselves in the midst of a new crater, I at length reluctantly sent the guide to bring up the carriage. Had I been alone I should have staid there till the evening. When we had gone down a short distance the same phenomena again appeared. The sudden cessation of the tremendous roaring, the clicking and rippling of the falling lava, and the low muttering became then again audible; then the fearful roar, and the shaking of the ground, and another crater burst forth on the flank of the mountain, below the Observatory, sending up clouds of dust and ashes, which rolled over and over till they reached an enormous height, but quite separate from the other clouds. All this time the sun was shining in an Italian sky without a cloud.

“After stopping some time to admire the scene, we continued our descent; but before we reached the bottom of the hill we saw the lava from the last crater tearing its way down through the vineyards to our right with wonderful rapidity. Just an hour after we left the top of the hill the cone commenced sending up torrents of stones, which fell in all directions; but whether the red-hot hail reached our position on the height I know not. When we reached Resina it was curious to see the congratulations for what they thought our escape on the faces of the people. The uncertainty and the panic were gone, and they were steadily packing up their beds and the few things they could carry, and starting with every sort of conveyance to put their guardian saint, St. Gennaro, between them and the danger. When I started from Naples I expected to find all the world at the top of the mountain; but, to my great surprise, there was not a single stranger there—only the few persons employed in bringing down the dead. I believe the police prevented any carriage passing after ours. The awful roaring of the mountain continued and increased till midnight, when it ceased, and only roared again for a short time about four o’clock. To-day the mountain is quieter, and the Neapolitans are a trifle less pale. The view of the mountain at midnight was grand in the extreme.”

[Sidenote: THE ERUPTION SUBSIDING.]

Several villages were destroyed in this eruption, and many acres of vines were covered with lava and ashes. But as soon as the eruption was over, many of those who had fled returned to whatever of their old homes they could find. There is something strange in the fascination of the people for the places which they are well aware are liable at any time to the lava torrent or the storm of ashes. Eruptions have occurred, and will occur again; but all the reasoning you can offer would not induce these Italian peasants to go and live elsewhere.

At the present time Professor Palmieri reports from his observatory, near the top of the crater, that symptoms have been observed by him which indicate a new eruption, and strange to say, the Italians, who are accustomed to live constantly in danger, quietly look out for the occurrence, living at the very foot of the death-dealing mountain. The soil is extremely fertile, and eagerness for wealth seems here even to expel fear for death.

XIII.

THE CAVERNS OF NAPLES.

EXCAVATIONS NEAR NAPLES.—POZZUOLI.—VISIT TO THE CAVE OF THE CUMEAN SIBYL.—ACCIDENT TO AN ENGLISH TRAVELLER.—HUMAN PACK-HORSES.—DARKNESS AND TORCHES.—THE LAKE OF AVERNUS.—DROWNED IN BOILING WATER.—A DANGEROUS WALK.—IN NERO’S PRISON.—INSTRUMENTS OF TORTURE.—USE OF THE RACK.—THE IRON BEDSTEAD.—BROILING A MAN ALIVE.—TREATMENT OF PRISONERS.—AN ANCIENT FUNERAL. —VIRGIL’S TOMB.—CONSTRUCTING WINE CELLARS.—NOVEL PLAN OF ROBBERY.

The traveller who visits Naples has abundant opportunities for making underground explorations in the neighborhood of that city. A few of the places he can examine are of natural origin—the Blue Grotto, for example; but by far the greater part of them are artificial. A most interesting journey can be made to Pozzuoli and its immediate neighborhood. With a longing desire to see some of the underground curiosities that have made that part of Italy famous, I arranged a tour in that direction before I had fairly settled myself at the hotel. We made a party of three, all Americans, and all as impatient and uneasy as our race is said to be when travelling on the continent. A skirmish with a horde of rapacious coachmen secured us a carriage, and we drove out of Naples by the road which skirts the bay in the direction of Rome.

Arriving in the vicinity of the famous places, we were beset by guides, who almost climbed into the carriage in their eagerness to secure an engagement. We picked out the cleanest of the lot, or rather the least dirty, and mounted him upon the box by the side of the driver, where he sat in all the dignity of an emperor. He spoke a confused jumble of English, French, and Italian, which was no language in particular, but might be anything in general. His first movement was to stop at a wayside house, from which a woman emerged bringing us half a dozen candles or torches of twisted rags and tallow, each of them as large as one’s wrist, and about three feet long. We objected to so many, but the guide assured us they would all be needed. I was inclined to doubt his statement, from my knowledge of the rascality of guides in general; but he met me with the promise, “Me them will pay for if not they be wanted, Si, signor. You verrez will.”

Of course we could not refuse after this guarantee. I paid for the torches with a silent resolution to make the fellow eat what were left over; and, as the tallow was bad, and the rags were worse, there was good reason to believe they would not make an agreeable dinner.

[Sidenote: GOING TO POZZUOLI.]

Soon after making this purchase, the work of sight-seeing began. Each place we visited had a man at the entrance, and not one of us could go inside without paying for the privilege. There were always a half dozen idle fellows hanging about ready to sell cameos and other curiosities which had been dug up in the vicinity, as they solemnly avowed; in reality the cameos were of modern manufacture, and made in Rome or Naples. The speculators would begin by asking fifty francs for a cameo which was worth about five, and which they would sell for five if they could not get any more. If we safely ran the gantlet through these avaricious tradesmen, we were beset by local guides who wanted to lead us, and we generally found it desirable to employ some of them in order to see what the place contained. In one instance these guides acted as pack-horses, and I can testify that one of them, at least, had all that he wanted to carry; and this is the way it happened.