2-888-414 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Naples. Vesuvius in the Distance - from an original sketch, 1850. Volcanic eruption in Italy: 'The lava has already passed over many miles of highly cultivated land...The advancing stream, however, has given plenty of time for the peasants, whose houses were menaced, to clear off all moveable articles...Several of the many thousands who visit the mountain day and night have, by venturing too near the crater, received serious injury from the falling stones...The sunset effect on the grand column of smoke, as seen from any point of the bay, is magnificent. The round masses of cloud expand from the mouth of the crater until reaching a height about that of the mountain from the sea, and then cover the sky with variegated forms, blazing with hot golden tints, which entirely obscure the belt of mountains surrounding the bay of Naples'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.