Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/323

Rh On every side, where the surface of the mountain had not been encroached upon by the lava either now or on former occasions, it was verdant, covered with grass, bushes, or small trees. Vineyards were planted over a considerable part of the hollows of the mountain where the streams of lava had advanced.

At the Hermitage we alighted from our carriage and continued the journey on foot along the lofty grass-grown ridge which hence extended to the inner side of the mountain and which is bordered by lava-streams from its midst. They flowed both on the right and left hand, and this latter stream was of a force and power of which it is difficult to give an idea. The crater, whence proceeded this flood, was concealed by a lofty ridge of rock behind which a fiery red brilliancy was flung to the clouds, but over a depression in this ridge a broad flood of lava was poured down with the speed of a water-fall. From these jaws of the lion (bocca di Leone) out of which large red-hot pieces of rock were hurled, one saw the stream pour down the mountain, forming hills and dales of partly gleaming and partly blackening lava. The darkness concealed its limits;—but thus might the region of hell appear. The cone of Vesuvius towered dark, vailed in smoke. I saw merely once or twice a few red hot stones thrown up out of it; and there could only be danger on the ridge where we stood in case of an eruption from its summit, although we were surrounded on three sides by lava. The heat thence was great and even intolerable if one approached the lava streams, but on the top of the ridge it was pleasant enough, because the night wind grew colder and stronger. Sometimes we were