The innocents abroad; . hre, and so achieved the glory of lightingtheir cigars by the flames of Vesuvius, and others cooked eggsover fissures in the rocks and were happy. The view from the summit would have been superb but forthe fact that the sun could only pierce the mists at long inter-vals. Thus the glimpses we had of the grand panorama be-low were only fitful and unsatisfactory. THE DESCENT. The descent of the mountain was a labor of only fourminutes. Instead ofstalking down the rug-ged path we ascended,we chose one which wasbedded knee-deep inloose ashes, and ploughedour way with prodigi
The innocents abroad; . hre, and so achieved the glory of lightingtheir cigars by the flames of Vesuvius, and others cooked eggsover fissures in the rocks and were happy. The view from the summit would have been superb but forthe fact that the sun could only pierce the mists at long inter-vals. Thus the glimpses we had of the grand panorama be-low were only fitful and unsatisfactory. THE DESCENT. The descent of the mountain was a labor of only fourminutes. Instead ofstalking down the rug-ged path we ascended,we chose one which wasbedded knee-deep inloose ashes, and ploughedour way with prodigiousstrides that would al-most have shamed theperformance of him ofthe seven-league boots. The Vesuvius of to-day is a very poor affaircompared to the mightyvolcano of Kilauea, inthe Sandwich Islands,but I am glad I visitedit. It was well worthit. It is said that during the descent. one of the grand erup-tions of Vesuvius it discharged massy rocks weighing manytons a thousand feet into the air, its vast jets of smoke and. 326 A POWERFUL TRADITION. steam ascended thirty miles toward the firmament, and cloudsof its ashes were wafted abroad and fell upon the decks ofships seven hundred and fifty miles at sea ! I will take theashes at a moderate discount, if any one will take the thirtymiles of smoke, but I do not feel able to take a commandinginterest in the whole story by myself. CHAPTER XXXI. THE BUEIED CITY OF POMPEH. THEY pronounce it Tom-pay-e. I always had an idea thatyou went down into Pompeii with torches, by the wayof damp, dark stairways, just as you do in silver mines, andtraversed gloomy tunnels with lava overhead and some-thing on either hand like dilapidated prisons gouged out of thesolid earth, that faintly resembled houses. But you do nothingof the kind. Fully one-half of the buried city, perhaps, iscompletely exhumed and thrown open freely to the light ofday; and there stand the long rows of solidly-built brickhouses (roofless) just as they stood eighteen hundred y
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectvoyagesandtravels
