CHAPTER XLIV.
VESUVIUS IN ACTION—AS IT LOOKS BY DAY AND BY NIGHT.
As it Looks by Day and by Night—Leaving Naples—First Sight of Vesuvius—Description—The Number of Volcanoes—Off to See the Burning Mountain—A Nameless Horse—Respect for Age—Refuse Portantina—Mountain of Shot—A Dweller in a Cave—A Slimy Serpent for a Companion—Jets of Steam—Vulcan’s Forge—Exposed to a Horrible Death—Upheavals of Lava—Showers of Fire—Fiery Fiends—Winged Devils—Tongue of Fire—A Voice of Thunder.
ITALY, as the reader will remember, is in the shape of a boot, and you find Mt. Vesuvius on the instep of that boot.
Leaving Naples by train we skirt along the beautiful bay by the same name and step off, as in the last chapter, at Pompeii, some fifteen miles from the starting point. Mt. Vesuvius now lifts its majestic form before us, and I am sure that if we should live to be as old as Methuselah, we can never forget its awful, yet picturesque and beautiful appearance.