OLIVE-ORCHARDS.

57

JOURNEY TO NAPLES.

ON THE WINDOW.

CHAPTER V.

THE APENNINES. —A SUNDOG. LIGHT FLASHES THE ASCENT OF VESUVIUS. SWARMS OF BEGGARS. MUSIC OF THE GUITAR. MOUNTAIN RAILWAY. - PROFESSIONAL GUIDES. — SMOKE AND VAPOR. ON THE SUMMIT. - LURID FLAMES. RED-HOT LAVA. THE MOUNTAIN TREMBLES. SEDANCHAIRS. FAMOUS ERUPTIONS. EXHILARATING VIEWS. CITY OF NAPLES. -TO BRINDISI.— ON THE MEDITERRANEAN.—THE AFRICAN SHORE.

ON leaving Rome for Naples, we found a very productive country for many miles. Fine oliveorchards cover much of the ground. In shape and size the olive-tree very closely resembles the common apple-tree, but in the color of the leaf they differ. The olive-leaf, instead of being green, has a pale, dusky appearance. Our train ran at great speed, and we were soon beyond the level fields that lie about Rome. On the right hand. and on the left, there were ranges of mountains; the limestone crests of some of the peaks of the Apennine chain being white as chalk.

A very brilliant sundog hanging over the hills at the west for several hours before night gave me much anxiety, for we intended to make the ascent of Vesuvius the next day; and I knew that this sign in the heavens meant fair weather or foul!

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WINDING UP THE MOUNTAIN.

Our arrival at Naples was at the untimely hour of midnight. The name of the hotel where we found quarters (expressed in plain English) was the Geneva. On retiring to our rooms, without the slightest knowledge of the points of compass, or of the whereabouts of the burning mountain, a fiery light suddenly flashed on our windows; and apparently not more than three miles away, high up in the heavens, were seen the black, rolling smoke and the intermittent flames of old Vesuvius. I need not assure the reader it was a most thrilling and impressive scene.

The next morning, which, notwithstanding the ominous sign of the evening before, was perfectly clear, we took a carriage with three horses abreast, and an experienced driver, for a trip to the foot of the mountain railway. Our party consisted of five persons, an educated and intelligent Irishman, who was traveling through the countries of Europe for pleasure; two Englishmen, who had seen much of the world; and two Yankees. It was worth a great deal to fall into company again where the English language prevailed.

We were four hours and a half in reaching the railroad station, though the bee-line distance is but eight miles. But we traveled twelve; as in getting forward the last two, up the mountain, we actually traveled, by doubling to the right and left at short intervals, six miles. As we passed out of Naples, along the shore of the sea, or bay,

TREES AND GRASS DISAPPEAR.

59

we found highly cultivated gardens and fields; our way being lined with the orange and lemon, the fig, the almond, and many other semi-tropical fruits. But our pleasure was marred by the presence of a horde of beggars, who followed our carriage, hanging to its sides and to the steps behind, like flies to a sick horse. They gave us no peace till we reached the steep ascent of the mountain. They were men, women, and children, all looking wretched and poor enough, Heaven knows, and all uttering cries in an unknown tongue sufficient to drive a sane mind into lunacy. For any thing that we knew of their language, they might as well have breathed out imprecations as prayers; and I have no doubt that those to whom we gave no money did invoke all the curses of the red-hot crater on our heads.

Finally the last professional beggar turned back ; and four fine-looking Italians, each with a guitar in hand, fell in at the rear of our carriage as the horses were slowly toiling up the mountain. They followed us a half-mile, and I believe sweeter music never flowed from human throat or stringed instrument than this which captivated us on the slope of the volcano. We cheerfully contributed to their wants, when they all politely raised their hats, and turned away.

We had now reached a point where trees and grasses were scarcely seen. The black, hardened lava, which has been poured down from the heated

60

BLAST FROM THE HORN.

furnace of the volcano, covers, in thickness varying from ten to a thousand feet, millions of acres ; making the whole mountain as somber and black as night. The voice of no bird, great or small, was heard in this smoky upper region; but lizards, the meanest-looking of all creeping things except snakes, were thick as leaves in Vallombrosa.

ascent.

Reaching the railway station at the foot of the "cone," we took seats in the frail car. The engineer gave a shrill blast from his tin horn, which was faintly responded to by a similar horn at the upper station, when the car started on the perilous The motive-power is a stationary engine at the lower terminus of the road. As one car goes up, another comes down, like buckets on a windlass. Each car runs on a single track, which is at its center, and raised up two feet from the sleepers. The cars are moved by ropes of coiled wire, an inch and a half through, running on pulleys. Though fully comprehending the construction and workings of this remarkable road, I do not think I could so describe it here as to be understood by the reader.

We did not feel entirely assured of the safety of this mode of ascending and descending the mountain. As the woman in Virginia said, when we were marching the army by her house, "It looks skeery!" No other road that I have knowledge of rises like this. It is said to be, a part of the distance, at an angle of 70°. It really makes

STIFLING SMOKE.

61

one's head swim to be carried, either up or down, on this frail-appearing structure, and by such machinery.

At the upper station, there is a horde of professional guides who are more pertinacious than the beggars at the bottom. They shout their outlandish clamor into one's ears, seize him by the collar, command him to stop, and make themselves generally as intolerable a set of nuisances as can anywhere be found. But we elbowed our way through this obstreperous crowd, — a performance something like "running the gantlet."

Under the direction of our one chosen guide, we made our final start for the crater. We struggled with difficulty up a very steep ascent, some fifty or seventy-five rods, to a comparative level. Here we halted a moment to take breath for the last and most trying step. Our way was now over the thin crust of hard, broken lava, from the crevices of which stifling smoke, and hot, sulphurous vapors were constantly issuing. This lava, coated with efflorescences of sulphur, was extremely hot, intolerable to the bare hand, and fatal to the soles of our shoes.

The hard but thin crust upon which we lightly trod seemed to have settled down in some places, -a woful indication that the day may come when a party of tourists will go to their doom here. This is near the old crater; and here many travelers are compelled to abandon their undertaking,