object that
presented itself to our eyes seemed changed, being covered over with
white ashes, as with a deep snow."

This graphic story repeats the experience of thousands on that fatal
occasion, in which great numbers perished, while many lost their all.
Villas of wealthy Romans were numerous in the vicinity of the volcano,
while among the several towns which surrounded it three were utterly
destroyed,--Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae. Of these much the most
famous is Pompeii, which, being buried in ashes, has proved far easier
of exploration than Herculaneum, which was overwhelmed with torrents of
mud, caused by heavy rains on the volcanic ash.

Pompeii was an old town, built more than six hundred years before, and
occupied at the time of its destruction by the aristocracy of Rome.
Triumphal arches were erected there in honor of Caligula and Nero, who
probably honored it by visits. It possessed costly temples, handsome
theatres and other public buildings, luxurious residences, and all the
ostentatious magnificence arising from the wealth of the proud
patricians of Rome.

[Illustration: THE RUINS OF POMPEII.]

What Pompeii was in its best days we are not now able to estimate. It
was essentially, in its architecture, a Greek city, rich and artistic,
gay and luxurious. But on February 5, 63 A.D., came the first of the
long series of earthquakes, and when it ended nearly all of old Pompeii
was levelled with the ground. It was not yet a lost city, but was a
thoroughly ruined one. In the years that followed it was rapidly
rebuilt, Roman architecture and decoration, of often tawdry and inferior
character, replacing the chaste and artistic Greek. Once more the city
became a centre of gayety, ostentation, and licentiousness, when, in 79
A.D., the eruption of Vesuvius came, and the overwhelming storm of ashes
came down like a thick-descending fall of snow on the doomed city.

The description given by Pliny relates to a less endangered point. Upon
Pompeii the ashes settled down in seemingly unending volumes, continuing
for three days, during which all was enveloped in darkness and gloom.
The citizens fled in terror, such as were able to, though many perished
and were buried deep in their ruined homes. On the fourth day the sun
began to reappear, as if shining through a fog, and the bolder fugitives
returned in search of their lost property.

What they saw must have been frightfully disheartening. Where the busy
city ha