Val Lasties has, as it were, cut down the mountain wall at
one place, and opened a deep gash in the centre of the circle,
so that one may compare the group to a gigantic saucer with
a broad wedge-shaped piece knocked out of it. Owing to
the depth of the valley we must keep along the rim of the
saucer in order to reach the other side of the group till, oppo-
site our point of entrance, we come to the Boespitze, the
highest peak of the massif.
This journey will confirm in us the view that the presence
of a surface covering of Dachstein rock in a Dolomite massif
tends to increase the amount of surface at summit level,
i.e. to produce plateau-shaped mountains. As this formation
predominates generally to the east, we have a contrast between
the fantastic peaks, e.g. the Rosengarten and Langkofel
groups, of the west, and the broader summits of Tofana,
Sorapis, Cristallo, and so forth, in the east.
But this is not quite the whole story, as a couple of examples
will show. Thus the Marmolata, which has a very steep
southern wall, and a gently inchned northern one, is built
up of Schlern dolomite, not, as one might suppose from its
shape, of Dachstein beds. On the other hand, the Drei Zinnen,
the curious Cinque Torri, the fine peak of Croda da Lago, the
Becco di Mezzodi, and so forth, despite their peaked and
pointed appearance, are built of Dachstein hmestones and
dolomites, as one may learn from their marked strati-
fication. But here, in contrast to the west, where tKe peaks
are perhaps isolated coral reefs, the pointed appearance is
due to the dissection of a once continuous bed of limestone.
The Drei Zinnen, those blunt pyramids rising from a
base of weathered rock, cannot fail to attract the attention
of the tourist, who even in a photograph can note their
TITE CHARMS OF THE REGION 221
obvious stratification. The mass of scree from whicii they
rise is due to the weathering of Raibl beds, so that the peaks
may be said to correspond to the top of the Sella plateau,
no underlying base of Schlern dolomite being visible here.
We add at the end of this chapter some notes on books,
popular and detailed, which will enable the reader to pursue
his studies of the Dolomites further. We have not here
dwelt on the wonderful colouring of the region, on the contrast
between the bare walls of rock above and the meadow and
forest land below, on that between their glowing tints in
the sunset light and the dead white snow which covers the
summit plateaux and the shelves and ridges, on the stains and
markings imprinted by the weather on every precipice, here
rusty and ominous, there blackened as though by smoke.
All these points have been already dwelt upon in many
popular works. The point we would emphasise is that here,
far more than in the Central Alps, access to the secrets of
the mountain is easy, and the warm deep valleys invite when
the mountain peaks are obstinately veiled in mist. Further,
few regions are so well calculated to arouse an interest in
geology, and few ofTer so much scope for collecting, whether
the interest Ue in fossils, or in rocks and minerals. Finally,
unless tower and ridge are to be assailed with the help of
guide, one has here a delightful sense of freedom in wander-
ing over the flowery meadows ; dipping down the steep
gulhes where the dry torrent bed affords so convenient an
access that ladders are actually fastened from block to block
in v/hat must be the fairway of the stream in flood-time ;
turning up promptly for meals at the huts to find and greet
the chance acquaintances of yesterday ; daring greatly one
day, not without secret trembling, and another spending long
hours tossing pebbles into the brook. If one avoids the
larger resorts and the big hotels it is all so simple, so homely,
and if a period of the simple hfe threaten to produce boredom
or self-righteousness — its two great dangers — it is so easy
222 HILLS AND VALLEYS IN THE DOLOMITES
to make a sudden raid upon civilisation, to squander the
savings of an economical week in one glorious hour of crowded
life — to the accompaniment of an orchestra (' all prices raised
during the concert '). A charming region, well-suited to
those of simple tastes and adaptabiUty of temperament !
Refeeences. The more general books mentioned at the end of
the preceding chapter discuss the Dolomites as well as the other parts
of the Alps (see especially Krebs' book, and Geikie's Mountains).
Gilbert and Churchill's book, The Dolomite Mountains, 1864, has
been already mentioned ; Miss Betham Edwards' Untrodden Peaks,
and Unfrequented Valleys may also be consulted. There are a con-
siderable number of recent EngUsh books, mostly deahng rather with
history and legend than with geography or geology. Hamer's Dolo-
mites may be named among these as giving a simple and unpretentious
description of the usual routes. CHmbing books on the region are
numerous; two may be specially mentioned. Sanger Da vies' Dolo-
mite Strongholds, second edition, 1896 — an entertaining book with re-
markable sketches by the author, and blood-curdling accounts of
climbs, most of which now rank as very ordinary performances well
within the capacity of very moderate climbers — is one of these. It is
a good book to lend to your unsopliisticated friends after a cUmbing
hoh'day in the region. The other book referred to is The Climbs of
Norman-Neruda, edited by May Norman-Nenida, a morbid and depress-
ing piece of work, but one which impresses certain of the features of
the mountains upon the mind.
Mrs. Ogilvie-Gordon's views as to the occurrence of overthrusting
in The Dolomites, to which allusion was made on p. 215. are set forth in
a series of scientific papers, presented to different learned societies.
Two of these may be specially mentioned, ' The Geological Structure
of Monzoni and Fassa,' Trans, Edin. Geological Society, special
part, 1902-3, and ' The Thrust-masses in the Western District of the
Dolomites,' Do., 1909-10. A good general description of Tyrol is given in
Tirol, by Max Haushofer, in a series called Land and Leute, Monographien
zur Erdkunde, 1889. This book has some fine illustrations. Finally,
the annual volumes of the Zeiischrift des Deutschen u. Oesterreichischen
Alpenvereins should be consulted. They contain, in addition to
articles both upon cHmbing and upon scientific topics, often beautiful
liustratious and fine maps.
CHAPTER XVll
NAPLES AND VESUVIUS : A STUDY IN VOLCANIC
ACTION
' Consider farther how the nether fires are daily and nightly forging,
in the great central furnaces, new granite mountains, even out of that
old worn rubbish ; and new plains are spreading themselves forth in
the deep sea, bearing forests now only of tangled alga), but destined
to wave with yellow corn.'
We have discussed in some detail the origin and characters
of those mighty mountain ranges which, with their intervening
valleys, furrow the surface of Europe, and shall describe
later one example of those regions of worn-down stumps
which are all that remain of the lofty chains of an earlier
time — a time before yet the earth was ready to serve as the
home of land animal or the higher land plants, aeons and
aeons before man appeared. Let us now turn from the all
but imperceptible movements which built the Alps to another
phenomenon, intermittently observable at different parts
of the earth, which has impressed man's imagination in a
fashion out of proportion to its real significance.
So slow is the process of mountain building in relation to
the time during which man bas had the intelUgence to observe,
that the hills have been for him the unchanging and the
everlasting, until, only as it were yesterday, he has been
able to decipher some part of their complex hieroglyphics,
to deduce from an accumulated mass of apparently unimpor-
tant details the fact of their changeableness and instability.
On the other hand, volcanic action — in essence but a sign
2J3
224 NAPLES AND VESUVIUS
and a symbol, an effect of the great forces which build moun-
tains — has been to him the expression, the true reahty of
the powers outside himself. Nor has this point of view been
wholly without justification. The periodic outbursts of the
nether fires, so trifling to the geologist with all time for his
province, and the battle-ground of warring species for his
field of study, have often been for the ordinary human being
catastrophes whose immensity is beyond the range of his
powers of expression.
Myriads of men and women have Uved and died since a mere
handful of them were overwhelmed in that ignoble city on
the shores of the Bay of Naples ; but while the earthquakes,
the famines, the pestilences which between then and now
have wiped out before their time untold numbers of human
beings give most of us but little concern, few can wander
through the triviaUties, the improprieties, the occasional
beauties of Pompeii without emotion. Even the crouching
dog whose image at the moment of death is to be seen beside
those of man and maid gains an unexpected pathos from its
surroundings. Perhaps we can always seize a richer joy in
Hfe from the thought that at any moment Mother Earth
may repent herself of her prodigal giving, may destroy with
_the same recklessness with which she creates. Or is it only
the fact that the city by the sea and some of its one-time
inhabitants have, as it were, risen from the dead to enduring
life which thrills us ? Is it the perception that their apparent
destruction was in essence but a becoming imperishable
which satisfies our human craving for permanence ? In any
case, while to appreciate the significance of the Alps requires
some imagination, to enjoy Naples and Vesuvius we need
only our common humanity.
But the very breadth of their appeal means that they have
been described times without number, and we shall not
therefore attempt to add another to the many existing
descriptions — scientific, eloquent or bombastic. We shall
THE APENNINES 225
only strive to point out some details which might escape
the ordinary tourist, in order to quicken expectation, to fill
up possible blanks in the picture, whose background is the
clear air, the blue sky, the hmestone cUfEs, the groves of
oranges and lemons, the dark pines.
Let us consider first the elements of the landscape. In the
vicinity of Naples, as in Italy in general, the land forms are
dominated by the existence of the Apennines, which run
through the whole continent, in a general north-west to south-
east direction. As we have already seen, the Apennines are
a continuation of the earth folds which built the Alps, though
in the neighbourhood of Naples, as in parts of the Eastern
Alps, it is faulting and local elevation of blocks of land which
give rise to the prominent features rather than actual folding.
We saw in the case of the Alps that an essential factor in
their formation w^as the presence of rigid earth blocks in
front of the rising folds, against which these folds as it were
broke. A similar rigid foreland seems to have existed in
the case of the Apennines, but it is now largely submerged
beneath the sea. On the coast of Tuscany, in Corsica,
Sardinia, in north-eastern Sicily and parts of Calabria, there
appear old rocks which are beUeved to be remnants of an old
Tyrrhenian continent, the foreland which once blocked the
rising Apennines. In association with the earth movements,
during which this continent sank beneath the sea, there
broke out here, as under similar circumstances elsewhere,
a chain of volcanoes, of which, on the mainland, Vesuvius
is the most southern and the only one still active. With the
same earth movements, and the consequent instability of
the Tyrrhenian Sea, we have to associate the earthquakes
which so frequently devastate Sicily and Calabria.
The result of the activity of the mainland volcanoes has
been the production, between the Apennines and the Tyrr-
henian Sea, of a broad belt of volcanic rocks, of varying
characters and fertihty. For example, while near Naples
P
226 NAPLES AND VESUVIUS
it is to the volcanic beds that the Campania owes its great
natural wealth and dense population ; on the other hand,
the tuffs from the extinct volcanoes of the Alban Hills,
which floor the Campagna near Rome, make that broad plain
a swamp or almost a desert according to the season, and
produce the curious anomaly of an almost uninhabited region
close to a great town.
With these broad facts in mind let us turn to the details
of the structure of the region round Naples, We have
spoken of the general direction of the Apennines, but we
must note that just to the south of Naples a long ridge runs
out seawards at right angles to the main chain, and forms the
peninsula of Sorrento, with the island of Capri at its extremity.
The promontory which constitutes the other arm of the
beautiful bay, prolonged into the islands of Procida and
Ischia is, on the contrary, of volcanic origin, this promontory
being the famous Phlegrsean or Burning Fields, so-called
in contrast to the smooth and fertile plains of the Campania
Felice. On these plains, between the two arms of the bay,
rises the great steep-sided mountain of Vesuvius, whose
internal fires are still burning. The Campania Fehce is
floored by volcanic beds which were probably thrown out by
submarine volcanoes, and even Vesuvius itself seems to have
been built up from the sea-floor.
We see then that the landscape round Naples is of exceed-
ingly diverse origin, and its world-famed beauty, in so far as
it does not rest on the colours of sea and sky, of orange grove
and orchard, is due to the variety of form and structure. The
distance from arm to arm of the bay is some twenty miles,
and no contrast could be greater than that between the
white limestone chffs (Plate XXI.) and fault scarps of
Sorrento and Capri, and the strange craters and mounds of
the Phlegrsean fields ; between the fertile slopes of the flanks
of Vesuvius and the bare ash cone (Plate XXII.) and slaggy,
absolutely barren, lava streams in its upper region. There
PLATE XXI
Limestone rocks ort' the shore of (.'apii
THE CONE OF VESUVIUS 227
can be few localities also which offer within so short a radius
so great a variety of excursions, from the grottoes, natural
arches, perpendicular cliffs and so forth of a limestone region,
to volcanoes in all stages of diminishing activity.
If, before proceeding further, one may offer a word of
practical advice to the tourist, it would be, if time is available,
not to be in too great a hurry to ascend Vesuvius. The
excursion, unless the mountain happens to be particularly
active, is perhaps always something of a disappointment to
those to whom it affords an introduction to volcanic
phenomena, and its significance is best appreciated if the
-Phlegrajan Fields, have been visited first. Further, there
can be no doubt that, especially on a fine day, a somewhat
detailed acquaintance with the surroundings increases the
appreciation of the view from the summit. It is a mistake
to make the ascent before the general He of the land is under-
stood, at least unless a second ascent is to be made later.
Further, the tourist, especially such as are acquainted
with long-extinct volcanic vents like those of Scotland,
should be prepared to find the mountain excessively ' untidy.'
Indeed particular persons have been known to assert that it
was a merciful providence which placed Vesuvius in the
vicinity of a city like Naples, for an energetic northern
municipality would at once have advertised for tenders for
the shovelling of the disfiguring mass of cinders which forms
the summit-cone into the sea ! Only a people which can
contemplate with perfect equanimity heaps of rotten vegetables
before its front doors could accept with composure that great
mass of shpping, sliding rubbish which here receives the
name of a mountain. In spite of its much lower height,
Arthur's Seat, which is, of course, not a volcano but only its
core, is to many minds a more imposing sight — especially
when seen brooding in the moonlight over the sleeping city
at its feet — than Vesuvius can be, even when it flames like a
torch above the cities of the bay.
2
228 NAPLES AND VESUVIUS
The reason is perhaps fairly obvious. In the case of
Arthur's Seat the temporary, the insignificant has long
since been eliminated ; the showy but unimportant pheno-
mena which attract the attention of the unphilosophical
have died away : what remains is a permanent, an irrefutable
testimony to the hidden fires which ultimately make life
possible on the globe. One may perhaps, without fanciful-
ness. compare the two regions to a recurrent phenomenon of
human hfe. When one of those great social upheavals occurs
which are themselves a testimony of the vitahty of human
society, the surrounding community mostly adopts one of
two attitudes. There are those who are impressed, intensely
impressed, by the mere outward expression. For them the
dark cloud which overhangs Vesuvius, the appearance of
flames in the darkness of the night, the showers of dust and
stones, are supremely important. For others the essential
insignificance of these phenomena masks the importance of
the forces of which they are an indication. Like that superior
person, the younger Pliny at the time of the destruction of
Pompeii, such individuals, too prone to arrogate to themselves
the title of philosophers, continue steadfastly to ' improve
their minds ' while their world rocks — regard the whole
eruption as almost beneath their notice.
The same people, on the other hand, are wilhng to devote
themselves continuously to the study of past social upheavals
to which the present seems to them to ofier no analogy.
Thus many travellers in Italy to-day manifest great interest
in the Risorgimento, which, now that it has been accompUshed,
and has been, as it were, purified by time, has become a
phenomenon of interest even to the superior person. To
the Austrians of the period, on the other hand, the often
futile attempts of the Itahans to free themselves seemed as
trivial and as childish as did certain equivalent phenomena
at home to unimaginative Britons to-day. AUke in nature
and in human hfe the great task of the thoughtful is to striv*
PLATF XXll
Neai" the summit of tlie cone of Vesuvius, sliowing the
unstable slopes of ilust, 'ashes,' lapilli, etc.
THE PHLEGR^AN FIELDS 229
to perceive the significant beneath the dust and the triviahty
of the present.
In order then to reahse what Ues hid beneath Vesuvius'
cloak of dust and slag let us turn for a httlc to the older, and
therefore in some respects simpler, phenomena of the Phle-
graean fields.
In the first place we must note that, as already stated, the
plains round Naples are floored by volcanic deposits which
have been rearranged by water. From these plains rises
the conical mass of Vesuvius, built up round one great |
vent, though the actual form of the mountain has differed!
greatly from time to time — a point to which we shall return, i
In contrast to the persistent vent of Vesuvius we have in
the Phlegroean Fields a considerable number of volcanic
apertures, each of which has had a short period of activity,
sometimes, as in the case of Monte Nuovo, limited to one great
outburst. Thus while the constant additions which have
been made to the pile of Vesuvius have enabled the mountain
to resist as a whole the action of denudation, though constant
changes of form, especially near the summit, have taken
place, the limitation of the activity of the separate vents of
the Phlegraean Fields has led to the wearing down or partial
removal of the smaller cones which were produced by the
separate eruptions. In consequence we have here only ruined
craters, volcanic ' cones ' so worn as to be apparent only to
the trained eye — generally a mass of hills and circular or
isemi-circular plains or basins, instead of one massive moun-
tain. The identification of the separate foci of eruption is
therefore not always easy, and there is not complete agree-
ment among different investigators as to their number.
Some twenty-six or so have, however, been traced with some
certainty, and a special feature is the way several of the old
craters have been, as it were, breached by the sea on their
southern or eastern sides. The harbour of Misenum is an
example, while the Cape of the same name is but a fragment
230 NAPLES AND VESUVIUS
of a crater wall left standing. Indeed Naples itself seems
to stand upon the site of a long extinct volcano, whose crater
wall has completely disappeared on the south-eastern side.
According to one view, the range of hills which extends from
Capodimonte through St. Elmo to Posillipo, and gives the
town so much of its beauty of situation, is the remains of
the crater wall of a huge volcano which once stood here.
We cannot attempt here to give an account of the separate
'volcanoes of the Phlegrsean Fields. That to which tourists
devote most of their time — the Solfatara— may serve to
illustrate their chief features.
The Solfatara, which has been studied perhaps more than
any other volcano, is very easy of access, and has even given
its name to a stage in the dying out of a volcanic vent. We
/ approach it through an artificially lowered gap in the crater
wall, and have then before us, ringed round by a steep
rampart, the almost circular crater, giving the impression
of perfect flatness, partly overgrown with vegetation, and
elsewhere floored with bare white earth. To emphasise the
contrast with Vesuvius we must give a few figures.
As we have already stated, the crater wall is breached
at the entrance gate, and here it rises only some 65 feet
above the flat plain within. Elsewhere the walls reach a
maximum height of some 340 feet above the level of the
crater, and about 650 feet above sea-level, for the floor of
the crater hes only some 300 feet or so above the level of
the adjacent sea. Thus the walls, apart altogether from the
entrance, vary considerably in height, but show everywhere
the characteristic feature of being very steep internally,
and having a much gentler slope on the outer side. The
diameter of the crater is some 300 yards — it is altogether
a toy volcano, a natural model, whose very activity is, as it
were, modulated so as to give the inquiring tourist some
insight into volcanic phenomena, without any trace of danger
or even of discomfort.
I'LATK XXIII
The guardian of the pit — Jiocca (.Tiande at the Solfatara.
FUIVIAROLES IN THE SOLFATARA 231
Apart from the shape, the special point of interest is the
fumaroles, as they are called — the holes on the crater floor
and sides from which water vapour and other gases are given
ofE. Perhaps the most interesting of these he on the bare
part of the floor, which sounds hollow beneath one's feet
because of the pores and cavities in the subjacent rock through
which the gases rise. As one walks across its white surface
little columns of vapour are seen rising into the clear air,
specially distinct after rain, or early in the morning before
the sun has full power. The guides, each with his inevitable
cigarette, stoop down over one of the holes and blow a puff
of smoke into it. Immediately from an adjacent fumarole a
cloud of white vapour arises. A torch or a fragment of burn-
ing wood will similarly increase the evolution of fumes. The
phenomenon seems to be largely one of condensation. The
escaping gas consists largely, though not exclusively, of
water vapour, and the particles of smoke serve as nuclei of
condensation, the efiect produced being similar to that of
a London fog, where vapour condenses round the particles
of soot in the air. In the case of the torch, further, the
raising of the temperature of the earth increases the evolution
of vapour, which condenses in the cooler air.
In addition to the fumaroles on the floor of the crater
others occur in its wall, especially in the S.E. angle, where
the so-called Bocca Grande occurs (Plate XXIII.). This is
partially an artificial shaft, from which copious fumes arise,
while deposits of sulphur, sal ammoniac, and so forth are
obtained.
Without elaborating the description further, we may
simply accept the statement that the SoLfatara is a dying
volcano which has never been really active throughout the
historic period, for the so-called eruption of 1198 was probably
not more than a considerable overflow of gas, accompanied
by earth tremors.
To what does it owe its present form ? It is almost cer-
232 NAPLES AND VESUVIUS