Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.djvu/215



WENTY centuries ago the rain of ashes and pumice-stone from Vesuvius buried Pompeii, and, at the same time, a stream of mud sealed up Herculaneum. Within the period of the last three hundred years, four times in succession, Torre del Greco has been covered by the flowing lava, but each time this town has been rebuilt. The great lava-stream of the eruption of 1906, lying just beyond Torre Annunziata, is an ominous demonstration of the evil possibilities still within old Vesuvius. To-day the small white cloud of smoke above the summit of the volcanic ash-cone merely hints of these latent forces that may again overwhelm some community at the base, while now the great mountain rests in its beauty and historic interest, overlooking the blue waters of the Bay of Naples. To the right are the massive buildings of the city intersected by narrow passage-ways, all crowded between the shore and the high wall of the hills which stretch from the Pallazzo Capoclimonte to the Posilipo. Par away at either side of the Bocca Grande are the islands of Capri and Ischia, at times clearly outlined, or again almost lost in the haze of opalescent mist.

All through the day many groups of fishing-boats are scattered about the bay while the men cast and haul their nets. Over the stone seawall others pull on the end-ropes of a drag-net that has been set far from shore, until at last the great burden of fish is safely unmeshed. Here and there divers go down to scrape" the rocks and sand of the bottom for mussels which are placed in a bag worn at the waist. Prom an anchored skiff a man dredges with a scoop-net attached to a long pole contented with many of the living things that appear, for strange creatures are welcome in the Neapolitan market. Thus, without planting or cultivating, the people gather from the sea an unending harvest. But from under the cliff of Sorento, to the wave-eroded rocks of Ischia,