ocr: diminished, survivors who had taken refuge in cellars and vaults tried to escape to the shores of the bay nearby. But they were overtaken by a second, slower fall from the cloud-a rain of suffocating ashes that piled uptoal height of six to nine feet. Like a palpable fog or a quicksand, it trapped and enveloped people in their houses and even those fleeing in the streets. Their bodies were encased in ash as in a mold, and these casts ofhardened ash are today the most moving evidences ofthe tragedy of Pompeii. By pouring liquid plaster into the now hollow molds, we can re-create the shape ofthe ...
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