Corwin Knapp Linson

Name: Century Magazine, Volume 69 — Color at Vesuvius
Author: Corwin Knapp Linson

Century Magazine, Volume 69 — Color at Vesuvius (1905)

Summary

“Century Magazine, Volume 69 — Color at Vesuvius”, published in 1905, is a work by Corwin Knapp Linson. It explores elements such as lava, Vesuvius and crater.

Quotes from Century Magazine, Volume 69 — Color at Vesuvius (Corwin Knapp Linson)

Corwin Knapp Linson, Century Magazine, Volume 69 — Color at Vesuvius (1905)

“ The lava-fields are among the most extraordinary of Vesuvian phenomena. Rock heaped upon rock,—not ordinary stone, but boulders such as might be made by fusing iron with coal refuse and glass,—rough, jagged rocks armed with teeth and claws and seamed with fire, scoriated, petrified streams, masses of matter resembling a monster’s wrinkled hide, fantastic shapes, they lie jammed together by an irresistible force, twisted, thrown one against another in nightmare confusion.
The vast extent of stony acres under the bright sunlight is blackish gray in color, bare, monotonous, and desolate. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corwin Knapp Linson, Century Magazine, Volume 69 — Color at Vesuvius (1905)

“ Pouring from the crater, when I reached the station, were swelling volumes of smoke and white vapor, following upon explosions that sent great stones and fragments of hot lava hundreds of feet into the air, while cinders fell about me like a dry, black rain. It seemed more than ever an impertinence to think of making pictures of so unearthly a spectacle.
All vision and hearing absorbed in what was taking place, I stood, half suffocated at times by the swirling fumes. With a far-away and insistent turbulence, a dull booming came from the depths. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corwin Knapp Linson, Century Magazine, Volume 69 — Color at Vesuvius (1905)

“ The brink was treacherously soft, with its coating of shifty ash on the ledge of lava overhanging the gulf; so, cautiously braced and bending forward less than a yard from the edge, I got a glimpse of the depths. The muffled muttering was the more impressive because impossible to measure or define. This clamor of unseen forces taps one’s nerves. I could mark the discolored sides of the crater dropping in precipitous incline, seamy, cracked, steaming at points with jets as from escape-valves. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corwin Knapp Linson, Century Magazine, Volume 69 — Color at Vesuvius (1905)

“ Sunset view of Vesuvius in January, showing old and new lava
The ash cone lies like a monster ant-heap on the broad shoulders of the mountain. The streams of lava ooze from holes, slowly following their various courses, congealing soon into weird and curious shapes. Two nights, with my guide, I clambered over the rough and tortuous surface, our torches flaring out into the darkness upon great masses that held a certain grandeur in their silhouettes. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corwin Knapp Linson, Century Magazine, Volume 69 — Color at Vesuvius (1905)

“ The blue walls of Monte Somma loomed through the rolling white steam-clouds that rounded up through the giant cracks. These crevices slant at a sharp angle in an almost straight line, bordered by the roughly tumbled lava upon which I stood, colored in brilliant yellows and various reds and blacks. I could not see the side beyond the constantly swelling steam, nor approach within ten yards for the evil smell of the place; and after noting the color-effect in a hasty sketch, I withdrew to a more healthful neighborhood. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corwin Knapp Linson, Century Magazine, Volume 69 — Color at Vesuvius (1905)

“ Where I had worked, a huge piece of lava lay deep in the ash, with a long furrow behind it. It looked like iron slag. Others, striking the outer edge, had rolled don the smooth outer slope of the cone, leaving twisted tracks that wound out of sight.
The highest point on the summit was a projection of lava perforated like an immense composite chimney, continually giving out vapors and heat. All about the largest hole were mineral deposits in a
pattern of old rose, lemon, orange, red, greenish bronze, and black. To put one’s head over this opening would be to challenge death. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corwin Knapp Linson, Century Magazine, Volume 69 — Color at Vesuvius (1905)

“ Thus, nearly two miles away, on this ledge of natural rock that juts from the mountain like a spur between the lava-beds on each side, one can hear the noise of the subterranean conflict as one cannot even under the mouth of the volcano. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corwin Knapp Linson, Century Magazine, Volume 69 — Color at Vesuvius (1905)

“ Up and down, in and out, carefully feeling for places for our feet, or sometimes making good way over some old and hardened stream, we proceeded, the lava cracking all about us with the contraction of cooling, the under surface still glowing in the crevices. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corwin Knapp Linson, Century Magazine, Volume 69 — Color at Vesuvius (1905)

“ At one end of the picture a gay Neapolitan riot of color, at the other gray ash and harsh lava rock, with patches of smoky yellow where sulphur lies, and here and there rich mottlings of lower tones of black and bronze and orange-red.
The Funicular Railway climbs the cone like an immense steel ladder. The upper station is a little shed of a thing, as grimy and black as a coal-breaker, some hundred feet or more from the crater. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corwin Knapp Linson, Century Magazine, Volume 69 — Color at Vesuvius (1905)

“ My guide once jumped to his feet as a new stream burst out not twenty yards away. Having reassured himself that the seam was not extending our way, and that there was no immediate danger, he reseated himself, saying, “It is nothing; but he works hard to-day.” ”

Corwin Knapp Linson

Summary

Quotes from Century Magazine, Volume 69 — Color at Vesuvius (Corwin Knapp Linson)

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