True story of the Martinique and StVincent calamities ..including an account of the destruction of Pompei and Herculaneum and accounts of all the most noted volcanic eruptions . ulaneum and Stabiae. So little was the thought of danger associated with the sleep-ing volcano that its fiery crater not very long ago had been soughtas an asylum by the bands of slaves and others who had flockedto the standard of Spartacus REASON FOR APPREHENSION. Although Vesuvius was at rest, an expert having only aslightly greater knowledge of natural phenomena than was cur-rent in those days would have seen reason
True story of the Martinique and StVincent calamities ..including an account of the destruction of Pompei and Herculaneum and accounts of all the most noted volcanic eruptions . ulaneum and Stabiae. So little was the thought of danger associated with the sleep-ing volcano that its fiery crater not very long ago had been soughtas an asylum by the bands of slaves and others who had flockedto the standard of Spartacus REASON FOR APPREHENSION. Although Vesuvius was at rest, an expert having only aslightly greater knowledge of natural phenomena than was cur-rent in those days would have seen reason for dread in the factthat the region 0f which Vesuvius was the main vent had neverin the memory of man known any long period of absolute island of Pithecusa, known to-day as Ischia, was frequentlyshaken by violent convulsions. So fierce were the volcanic erup-tions from its still active mountain that several Greek colonies 280 STORY OF THE CAPTAIN OF A DANISH VESSEL. which had established themselves on the island were soon depopu-lated. Nor were these eruptions the only source of peril. Poisonousexhalations, such as are emitted by violent craters after an erup-. STARTLING EFFECT OF THE ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS ON THE SEA. tion has subsided, were exhaled at intervals from extensive tractson Pithecusa, making the island periodically uninhabitable. Still nearer to Vesuvius lay the famous Lake Avernus. Thevery name has passed into a popular synonym for the infernalregions. It is said to be a corruption from the Greek Aornos, orbirdless, and to have signified that the vapors ascending from STORY OF THE CAPTAIN OF A DANISH VESSEL. 281 its waters destroyed all birds that attempted to fly over the sur-face. In fact, though the lake is inocuous to-day, there is everyreason to believe that it hides the outlet of an extinct volcano andthat long after the volcano ceased to be active it emitted gases asfatal to animal life as those suffocating vapors which annihilatedall the cattle on
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectvolcano, bookyear1902
