Yesterday, early in the afternoon, in Pompeii (Bay of

Naples and Mount Vesuvius) the residents witnessed a

fierce volcanic eruption.
On 24th august, over the Bay of Naples came a cloud, it
rose to a great height and then split of into tiny bits. The
sky looked white and also a little blotched, according to
the amount of soil it carried. Later, ashes were falling
from nowhere, the ships pulled up near the shore,
followed by pieces of tiny blackened stones, all of a
sudden the ships were in the depth of the ocean. Things
became worse from bad. The seaside was obstructed by
the waste from the mountain. Meanwhile, on Mount
Vesuvius, the broad sheets of fire and vaulting flames
flashed at multiple points, their dazzling lights
emphasized by the darkness of the night. The building
were quivering with violent shocks, and seemed to be
swaying from side to side as if they had been ripped off
their foundations. Carriages were shattering in different
direction, though the ground was quite level, and would
not remain motionless, even though it was crammed with
stones. People of Pompeii also saw the sea drained,
evidently forced back by the earthquake, at any rate it
would retreat, from the shore so that it left quantities of
the sea animals wrecked on the dry sand.
On the landward apprehensive black cloud was rent by
forked and quivering bursts of flames, it parted to reveal
great tongues of fire, like lightning magnified in size.
Later the cloud caved in and covered the sea, broadening
on the earth like a flood, as if the universe had pitched
into everlasting darkness. Eventually the darkness thinned
and spread like smoke then came daylight, but not as
before, for it was yellowish as it would be on an eclipse.
Everything had changed, concealed deep in the ashes like
snowdrifts.