The Bloomfield Times

Foreign Items.

Terrible Eruption of Vesuvius.

Dispatches from Naples say that the view of Mount Vesuvius from this city is now the grandest that has been witnessed since the year 1631. Many persons have taken advantage of the panic among the people of the towns which were threatened with destruction to take whatever goods they could find, and the government has been compelled to order troops to those places to prevent the stealing of abandoned property. In this city the Bourse has closed, and business is almost entirely suspended. The people use umbrellas to protect them from the falling ashes. Rain is badly wanted, else the crops will be destroyed. As the worst is now believed to be over, the excitement of the people has considerably lessened.

A sound as of thunder accompanies the discharges from Mount Vesuvius. The wind is blowing in this direction, carrying dense clouds of smoke and ashes over the city, the ashes falling in the streets like snow, and has already reached a depth of two or three inches. The rumbling inside the volcano continues, but no fresh craters have opened, and the lava has ceased flowing.

In the afternoon showers of sand succeeded the rain of ashes, which was falling in the morning. The eruption is accompanied by fearful electric phenomena. Lightning darts incessantly from the summit, and quakings of the mountain are more violent and frequent. Thunder is continuous. Burning cinders and stones are falling fast and thick in the town of Massa di Somma, which is entirely deserted. There is a great consternation among the inhabitants of the villages and towns which are threatened with danger. It is asserted that many tourists were surrounded by the lava and have perished.