VESUVIUS

ENGLISH * VESUVIUS
SEEN FROM AFAR, WITH ITS GENTLE SLOPES AND PLACID FORM, VESUVIUS SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN CREATED ON PURPOSE TO MAKE NAPLES THE MOST HARMONIOUS CITY IN THE WORLD,BUT SEEN FROM ABOVE, THERE IS NO DOUBT OF ITS TERRIBLENESS. FORMIDABIL MONTE STERMINATOR VESEVO, SO LEOPARDI CALLED IT, AND INDEED, IN COMMON WITH ALL VOLCANOES, VESUVIUS IS A DESTROYER HERCULANEUM AND POMPEI, THERE HAVE BEEN ABOUT FIFTY UP TO THE PRESENT DAY. THE MOST RECENT DATES BACK TO 1944, AND SINCE THEN VESUVIUS HAS NO LONGER EMITTED SMOKE. HOWEVER, EVEN WITHOUT ITS FINE PLUME OF SMOKE ISSUING FORTH IT IS A VOLCANO; AND THE MENACING CRATER WE SEE HERE, WITH A CIRCUMFERENCE OF 700 METRES, IS ENOUGH TO DISCOURAGE ANYONE FROM VENTURING TOO NEAR. WIDER, BUT LESS DANGEROUS THAN VESUWAY RUNS. VESUVIUS IS COMPOSEDOF TWO CRATERS: AN OUTER ONE, WHICH IS VESUVIUS PROPER. VESUVIUS IS THEREFORE AN ENCLOSED VOLCANO.
THE VALLEY, WITH ITS DANTESQUE LANDSCAPE, WHICH LIES BETWEEN THE TWO CONES IS CALLED THE ATRIO OF THE HORSE; ANOTHER VALLEY, EVEN MORE FEARFUL, IS KNOWN AS THE VALLEY OF HELL. THE VOLCANO IS COMPOSED OF ENORMOUS NASSES OF SOLIDIFIED LAVA, CRYSTALLINE ROCKS, PUMICE WITH FELDSPAR CRYSTALS, LEUCITIC BASALT AND PIPERNO TUFA; POZZOLAN, A VOLCANIC DUST INDISPENSABLE IN THE PRODUCTION OF MORTAR, IS EXTRACTED HERE. THE WELL PROTECED VESUVIAN METEREOLOGICAL OBSERVATORY, THE FIRST IN ITALY AFTER THOSE IN ENGLAND, FRANCE AND RUSSIA, IS SITUATED ON THE CREST OF THE RIDGE WHICH CONNECTS MONTE SOMMA TO VESUVIUS. THE LATIN POET MARTIAL TELLS US THAT IN HIS DAY VINES GREW TO THE VERY EDGE OF THE CRATER. IT WAS THOUGHT TO BE EXTINCT: SPARTACUS AND HIS FOLLOWERS EVEN SET UP CAMP THERE. ONCE AGAIN, ALL APPEARS TO BE QUIT, YET ONE CAN NEVER TELL...