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Show 358 DESTRUCTION OF 1'0n.RE DEL GltECO. 'Besides the cities already mentioned, Stabire, a small town about six miles from Vesuvius, and ncar the site of the modern Castel-a-Mare (see map, plate 3), was overwhelmed during the eruption of 79. Pliny mentions that, when his uncle was there he was obliged to make his escape, so great was the quant' ity of falling stones and ashes. In t h e rum. s of this place, a few skeletons have been found buried in volcanic ejections, together with some antiquities of no great value~ and rolls of papyrus, which, like those of Pompeii, were illegible. Of the towns hitherto mentioned, Herculaneum alone has been overflowed by a stream of melted matter; but this did not, as we have seen, enter or injure the buildings which were previously enveloped and covered over with tuff. But burning torrents have often taken their course through the streets of Torre del Greco, and consumed or inclosed a large portion of the town in solid rock. It seems probable that the destructiol} of three thousand of its inhabitants, in 1631, which smne accounts attribute to boiling water, was principally due to one of those alluvions which we before mentioned; but, in 1787, the lava itself flowed through the eastern side of the town, and afterwards reached the sea : and, in 1794, another current rolling over the western side, filled the street and h.ouses, an.d killed more than four hundred persons. The mam street IS now quarried through this lava, which supplied building-stones for new houses erected where others had been annihilated. The church was half buried in a rocky mass, but the upper portion served as the foundation of a new edifice. The number of the population at present is estimated at fifteen thousand ; and a satisfactory answer may readily be r~turned. to those who inquire how the inhabitants can be so "mattent~ve to the voice of time and the warnings of Nature*," as to rebmld their dwellinO'S on a spot so often devastated. No neighbouring $ite unoccupied by a town, or which would no~ b.e equally insecure, combines the same advantages of proximity to the had been incurred . it was discovered that the whole of the ground had been pr~ viously examined 'near a century before, by the French Prince d'Elbeuf, "ho ba ' · h' h f o s have removed everything of value ! The want of system w1th w IC optlre. 1 · '1 bnl unders always been, and still are, carried on is such, that we may expect simi ar to be made continually. ,.. Sir H. Davy, Consolations in Tra~el, P· 66. REFLECTIONS ON TilE BURIED CITIES. 359' c~pital, to the sea, and to the rich lands on the flanks of Vesu-vdi' us. 1 Ibf the present population were ext'l ed , the y wou ld I· mme-tate Y e replaced by another, for the same reason that the Maremma of Tuscany and the Campagna di Roma will never be dep~pulated, although the malaria fever commits more havoc m a few years than the Vesuvian lavas in as many ~enturies. The district around Naples supplies one, amongst mnumerable examples, that those regions where the surface is mos.t frequ~ntly re~ewed, and where the renovation is accompa~ Ied, at different mtervals of time, by partial destruction of ammal and vegetable life, may nevertheless be amonO'st the most habitable and delightful on our globe. We have ~lread made a similar remark .when speaking of tracts where aquem~ causes are now most active.; and the observation applies as well to parts of the. surface whiCh are the abode of aquatic animals, as to tho~e w~ICh sup~ort terrestrial species. The sloping sides ~f VesuviUs g1~e nourishment to a vigorous and healthy population of ~bout etghty th~usand souls ; and the surrounding hills and pl~I~s, togeth~r w.Ith several of the adjoining isles, owe the fertility of their sml .to matter ejected by prior eruptions. Had the fundamental limestone of the Apennines remained uncovered. throughou~ the whole area, the country could not h~ve sustamed a twentieth part of its present inhabitants. This ~Ill be app~rent to every geologist who has marked the change m the agricultural character of the soil the moment he has passed the utmost b~undary of the volcanic ejections, as when, for example, at the distance of about seven miles from Vesuvius he.leaves the plain and ascends the declivity of the Sorrentin; Htlls. . Yet fa;oured as this region has been by Nature from time IIDI?emortal~ the signs of the changes imprinted on it during the period that It has served as the habitation of man, may appear m after-ages to indicate a series of unparalleled disasters. Let us suppose that at some future time the Mediterranean should form a gulf of the great ocean, and that the tidal current should encroach on the shores of Campania, as it now advances upon the eastern coast of England : the geologist will t~en ~eh?ld the towns already buried, and many more which w~ll mevttably be entombed hereafter, laid open in the ~teep chffs, where he will discover streets superimposed above each |
