Vesuvius has been in eruption all the week, and for
a few days, notably on the 26th April, it was feared that Torre del Greco and other towns round the bay would be destroyed. The roar of the mountain was frightful, " like millions of peals of thunder roaring at the same time ;" a column of ashes was thrown up to such a height that they fell even in Naples, and in Portici lay an inch thick ; while the lava, incessantly bursting through new orifices, poured down towards the sea. The number of persons killed is said not to exceed eighty, but the towns at the foot of the mountain were for a time depopulated, their inhabitants flying to Naples for security. On Thursday the flow of lava, though not ended, was decreasing, and Professor Palmieri, whose
observatory was at one time in great danger, reports that he con- sidered the eruption over.
