File:Stories of persons and places in Europe (1887) (14803689803).jpg

Identifier: storiesofpersons00bene (find matches)
Title: Stories of persons and places in Europe
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Benedict, E. L. (from old catalog)
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, London, G. Routledge and sons
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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mpered by the most healthful sea breezes; the scenery is rich andbeautiful, with always a deep blue sky over head; and the richest pro-ducts of the vegetable world abound on every side. The soil is so rich,and the climate so genial, that three crops can be raised in the sameground in a year. It is the garden of the garden land, Campania, thehappy. All over this plain are the yawning mouths of old volcanoes, that dur-ing the long, dark ages of the past, threw out their ashes, lava and miner- Italy. als over the earth, preparing the soil for its fruitfulness. Pretty littlelakes now nestle in some of these old craters; from others, sulphurousvapors are yet ascending. The ancients used to call a part of this regionthe Burning Field, because it contained so many volcanoes, and theyreallythought that the way to Hades was through these yawning mouths.The active member of this family of volcanoes is Mount Vesuvius, whohas so startled the world with his ragings in recent years. During the last
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BRIDGE OF ST. ANGELO, AND THE BOB.GO. century he has broken out about every three or four years, and frequentlysends out smoke and flame between times. When the people see none ofthese signs of life for several weeks, they begin to look for a severe erup-tion. There is no spectacle so terribly grand and fascinating as Mount Vesuviuswhen he is hurling out his internal fires. The people everywhere rush outof their houses to watch with breathless interest his tragical performances.He sends up great pillars of white smoke like heaps of clouds several times1,higher than his head. Into this he hurls stones and ashes with a force 356 Persons and Places in Europe. \ that carries tliem up thousands of feet. Then columns of fire shoot upthree times as high as the mountain itself. At times he seems to pause a little as if for breath, then with increasedfury sends roaring volleys of blood-red stones and dazzling meteors. Intothe deep black of the sky, made yet more black by dark masses of smoke,t

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