The Enquirer

ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS.

"NAPLES, Sep. 12—Two days ago, a dull sound, with loud rumblings announced that the Vesuvius was in labor. Yesterday at four o'clock in the afternoon, the eruption manifested itself, with circumstances of the most alarming nature to Portici and Resina. A tempest which collected on the side of Vesuvius, displayed a thick column of smoke, ascending from the mountain, which rose to a prodigious height. As the day declined, the reddish color of the smoke assumed a deeper hue and at night all the mountain appeared to be on fire. At 10 o'clock the thundering had ceased; Vesuvius no longer vomited its flames but the lava flowed in abundance and all the plains, on the right of the hermitage, was covered with it; the flame rendering every part perfectly lucid, the plain appeared a sea of fire. The lava, descending from the crater, flowed with a deep full sound, by two large openings; one on the side of Resina, the other on the side of Bosco de Case, in the direct line of Herculaneum. This division of the lava, taking this course was the means of saving the first mentioned town, which would have been destroyed, and perhaps Portici likewise, if all the lava had taken that direction. Some houses were buried in the neighborhood of Bosco: and several vineyards were consumed. Happily the eruption lasted but a few hours, when the flow of lava abated; but all the inhabitants suffered the greatest anxiety. Never was there from Vesuvius, such an immense quantity of lava, in so short a time.—It covered an extensive tract of country, even to the gulph of Salerno."