When the well referred to was being made, the workmen came upon another well; an ancient affair, nearly eighty feet from the surface. Several works of art were brought to light, but for some reason the government of Naples prohibited the explorations. Thirty years later, they have been renewed, and have since been prosecuted at different intervals. At the present time the excavations are continued with much zeal, and startling discoveries are being made. [Illustration: SEARCHING FOR RELICS AT HERCULANEUM.] As was the case with Pompeii, so over ancient Herculaneum a new city has been built. Underground passages have been explored like those of a mine, without uncovering them to the light of day. One great difficulty of the excavations exists in the fact that whilst Pompeii, at the time of the great eruption, was covered with ashes, Herculaneum was covered with liquid lava, which, if not exposed to the air, requires sometimes two or three years to cool off, but then it is almost as hard as flag-stone. It is easily to be seen that under such difficulties the excavations but slowly progressed; the more so, as the digging has to be done very carefully, so as not to mar the relics, for which the excavation properly is done. It is not often that articles are found at a height above four feet from the floor, as their weight naturally carried them downwards through the soft mass of ashes. The digging is therefore rapidly prosecuted until the uniform above level has been attained. After this, the workmen carefully examine every piece of lava which they extract by small portions. As soon as the experienced eye of any worker recognizes the indications of a mold being formed in the lava, labor near that point is stopped, and tamping irons are cautiously inserted to make two or three vents in the cavity. Then liquid plaster is poured in; and after being left sufficiently long to harden, the lava is taken away, and the cast is removed. [Sidenote: A YOUNG MAN AND A YOUNG LADY.] In this way some curious facts have been brought to light. Two skeletons were found in close embrace, the teeth perfect, indicating youth in its prime; skeletons of a young man and maid. They had fallen together in their flight, and death had wedded them. There was a mother with her three children, hand-in-hand, who tried vainly to outrun death. Perhaps the mother, singly, might have done it, but she could not leave her children. Plenty of food for sad thought is furnished in remembering that at Herculaneum and Pompeii, six hundred skeletons have already been exhumed!—many in such positions and circumstances as to suggest very touching episodes accompanying the final catastrophe. The skeleton of a dove was found in a niche overlooking the garden of a house. She had kept to her post, notwithstanding the shower of hot, death-dealing lava. She sat on her nest through all the storm, shielding the egg which was taken from beneath her. [Sidenote: THE STREETS OF HERCULANEUM.]