Page:The fairy tales of science.djvu/337

Mount Vesuvius gave its first notice of action in A.D. 73, when it did much injury to houses and villages upon its flanks. From 73 to 79 there were several small shocks, and in August of the latter year occurred that awful eruption of ashes which destroyed the cities of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Strabiæ, and caused the death of the elder Pliny. From 79 to 1036, six other eruptions of ashes, sand, and shattered fragments of lava took place; in the latter year occurred the first authentic overflow of lava, which was repeated in 1049 and 1138. After this the mountain rested for one hundred and sixty-eight years. Another great eruption then took place in 1306, and a slight one in 1500, followed by another repose, which lasted till 1631, when a fearful eruption took place, blowing up into the air the forest of brushwood that covered the sides of the mountain, and the luxuriant grassy plain at the bottom. Passing over several other eruptions of the mountain, we come to the one in October, 1822, which lasted nearly a month, and was attended by a series of loud detonations and explosions. Between 1800 and 1822, the vast crater formed in 1631 was gradually getting filled up with lava, cinders, and ashes, the bottom presenting a rugged, rocky plain, covered with scattered blocks of lava and heaps of cinders. In this eruption of October, 1822, the force from below broke up this aggregation of lava blocks at the bottom, and hurled them all into the air, leaving behind a tremendous chasm, above