At the beginning the trembling was
continual, and accompanied by a hollow noise, similar to that occasioned
by a river falling into a subterranean cavern. The lava, at the time
of its being disgorged, from the impetuous and uninterrupted manner in
which it was ejected, causing it to strike violently against the walls
of the vent, occasioned a continual oscillation of the mountain. Toward
the middle of the night this vibratory motion ceased, and was succeeded
by distant shocks. The fluid mass, diminished in quantity, now pressed
less violently against the walls of the aperture, and no longer issued
in a continual and gushing stream, but only at intervals, when the
interior fermentation elevated the boiling matter above the mouth. About
4 A. M. the shocks began to be less numerous, and the intervals between
them rendered their force and duration more perceptible.
During this tremendous eruption at the base of the Vesuvian cone, and
the fearful earthquakes which accompanied it, the summit was tranquil.
The sky was serene, the stars were brilliant, and only over Vesuvius
hung a thick, dark smoke-cloud, lighted up into an auroral arch by the
glare of a stream of fire more than two miles long, and more than a
quarter of a mile broad. The sea was calm, and reflected the red glare;
while from the source of the lava came continual jets of uprushing
incandescent stones. Nearer to view, Torre del Greco in flames, and
clouds of black smoke, with falling houses, presented a dark and
tragical foreground, heightened by the subterranean thunder of the
mountain, and the groans and lamentations of fifteen thousand ruined
men, women and children.
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