the excavations at these places which have been made in modern times.
The larger part of Pompeii and a considerable portion of Herculaneum
have been thus explored; only rarely have human remains been found.
Here and there, particularly in the cellars, the labourers engaged in
the work of disinterring the cities note that their picks enter a
cavity; examining the space, they find they have discovered the
remains of a human skeleton. It has recently been learned that by
pouring soft plaster of Paris into these openings a mould may be
obtained which gives in a surprisingly perfect manner the original
form of the body. The explanation of this mould is as follows: Along
with the fall of cinders in an eruption there is always a great
descent of rain, arising from the condensation of the steam which
pours forth from the volcano. This water, mingling with the ashes,
forms a pasty mud, which often flows in vast streams, and is
sometimes known as mud lava. This material has the qualities of
cement--that is, it shortly "sets" in a manner comparable to plaster
of Paris or ordinary mortar. During the eruption of 79 this mud
penetrated all the low places in Pompeii, covering the bodies of the
people, who were suffocated by the fumes of the volcanic emanations.
We know that these people were not drowned by the inundation; their
attitudes show that they were dead before the flowing matter
penetrated to where they lay.

It happened that Pompeii lay beyond the influence of the subsequent
great eruptions of Vesuvius, so that it afterward received only slight
ash showers. Herculaneum, on the other hand, has century by century
been more and more deeply buried until at the present time it is
covered by many sheets of lava. This is particularly to be regretted,
for the reason that, while Pompeii was a seaport town of no great
wealth or culture, Herculaneum was the residence place of the gentry,