ounces) at Benevento, Foggia, and Monte Mileto, upwards of thirty miles from Vesuvius *; but what is most extraordinary (as there was but little wind during the eruption of the 8th of August) minute ashes fell thick that very night upon the town of Manfredonia, which is at the distance of an hundred miles from Vesuvius †.

These facts seem to confirm the extreme supposed height of the column of fire that issued from the crater of Vesuvius last Sunday night, and are greatly in support of what we find recorded in the history of Vesuvius with respect to the fall of its ashes at an amazing distance, and in a short space of time, during its violent eruption.

We proceeded from Caccia-bella to Ottaiano, which is a mile nearer to Vesuvius, and is reckoned to contain twelve thousand inhabitants. Nothing could be more dismal than the sight of this town, unroofed, half buried under black scoria and ashes, all the windows towards the mountain broken, and some of the houses themselves burnt, the streets choaked up with these ashes (in some that were narrow, the stratum was not less than four feet thick), and a few of the inhabitants just returned were employed in clearing them away, and piling up the ashes in hillocks to get at their ruined houses. Others were assembled in little groups, inquiring after their friends and neighbours, relating each other's woes, crossing themselves, and lifting up their eyes to Heaven when they mentioned their miraculous escapes. Some monks, who were in their convent during the whole of the horrid shower, gave us the following particulars, which they related with solemnity and precision.

The mountain of Somma, at the foot of which Ottaiano is situated,

The prince of Monte Mileto told me, that his son, the Duke of Popoli, who was at Monte Mileto the 8th of August, had been alarmed by the shower of cinders that fell there, some of which he had sent to Naples, weighing two ounces; and that stones of an ounce had fallen upon an estate of his ten miles farther off. Monte Mileto is about thirty miles from the volcano.

+ The Abbé Galliani, well known in the literary world, told me, that his sister, a nun in a convent at Manfredonia, had wrote to enquire after him, imagining that Naples must have been destroyed, when they, at so great a distance, had been so much alarmed by a shower of minute ashes, which fell on that city at eleven o'clock at night, the 8th of August, as to open all the churches, and go to prayers. As the great eruption happened at nine o'clock at night, the ashes must have travelled an hundred miles within the short space of two hours.

hides Vesuvius from its sight, so that till the eruption became considerable it was not visible to them. On Sunday night, when the noise increased, and the fire began to appear above the mountain of Somma, many of the inhabitants of this town flew to the churches, and others were preparing to quit the town, when a sudden violent report was heard; soon after which they found themselves involved in a thick cloud of smoke and minute ashes: a horrid clashing noise was heard in the air, and presently fell a deluge of stones and large scorice, some of which scoria were of the diameter of seven or eight feet, and must have weighed more than an hundred pounds before they were broken by their fall, as some of the fragments of them, which I picked up in the streets, still weighed upwards of sixty pounds. When these large vitrified masses either struck against one another in the air, or fell on the ground, they broke in many pieces, and covered a large space around them with vivid sparks of fire, which communicated their heat to every thing that was combustible*. In an instant the town, and country about it, was on fire in many parts; for in the vineyards there were several straw huts, which had been erected for the watchmen of the grapes, all of which were burnt. A great magazine of wood in the heart of the town was all in a blaze, and, had there been much wind, the flames must have spread universally, and all the inhabitants would have infallibly been burnt in their houses, for it was impossible for them to stir out. Some who attempted it with pillows, tables, chairs, the tops of wine casks, &c. on their heads, were either knocked down, or soon driven back to their close quarters under arches, and in the cellars of their houses. Many were wounded, but only two persons have died of the wounds they received from this dreadful volcanic shower. To add to the horror of the scene, incessant volcanic lightning was whisking about the black cloud that surrounded them, and the sulphureous sinell and heat would scarcely allow them to draw their breath.

In this miserable and alarming situation they remained about twenty-five minutes, when the volcanic storm ceased all at once,

The masses were formed of the liquid lava, the exterior parts of which had become black and porous by cooling in the long traverse they had made through the air, whilst the interior parts, less exposed, retained an extreme heat, and were perfectly red.

and the frightened inhabitants of Ottaiano, apprehending a fresh attack from the turbulent mountain, hastily quitted the country, after having deposited the sick and bed-ridden, at their own desire, in the churches.

Had the eruption lasted an hour longer, Ottaiano must have remained exactly in the state of Pompeia, whice was buried under the ashes of Vesuvius just 1700 years ago, with most of its inhabitants, whose bones are to this day frequently found under arches and in the cellars of the houses of that ancient city.

We were told of many miracles that had been wrought by the images of saints at this place during the late disaster; but as they are quite foreign to my purpose, I shall, as usual, pass them over in silence.

The palace of the Prince of Ottaiano is situated on an eminence above the town, and nearer the mountain, the steps leading up to it, being deeply covered with volcanic matter, resembling the cone of Vesuvius, and the white marble statues on the balustrade made a singular appearance peeping from under the black ashes, which had entirely covered both the balustrade and their pedestals. The roof of the palace was totally destroyed, and the windows were broken; but the house itself, being strongly built, had not suffered much.

We had an opportunity of seeing here exactly the quality of the dreadful shower, as the volcanic matter, which broke through the roof of the palace, and fell into the garrets on the balconies and in the courts, had not been removed. It was composed of the scorice of fresh lava much vitrified, great and small, mixed with fragments of ancient solid lavas of different sorts; many pieces were enveloped by the new lava, which formed a crust about them; and others were only slightly varnished by the fresh lava. These kind of stones being very compact, and some weighing eight or ten pounds, must have fallen with greater force than the heavier scoria, which were very porous, and had the great surface above mentioned.

The palace of Ottaiano is built on a thick stratum of ancient lava, which ran from the mountain of Somma when in its active volcanic state. Under this stratum we were shewn three grottoes, from which issues a constant extreme cold wind, and at times with impetuosity, and a noise like water dashing upon rocks. They are shut up with doors like cellars, and are made use of as such, as also to keep provisions fresh and to cool liquors. I had never seen

which

these ventaroli before. In my letter to Dr. Maty, upon the nature of the soil round Naples, I have mentioned others of the same kind that I had met with on Vesuvius, Etna, and in the island of Ischia*.

We observed, that the tract of country completely covered with a stratum of the volcanic matter above-mentioned, was about two miles and a half broad, and as much in length, in which space the vines and fruit trees were totally stripped of their leaves and fruit, and had the appearance of being quite burnt up; but, to my great surprize, having visited that country again two days ago, I saw those very trees, which were apple, pear, peach, and apricot, in blossom again, and some with the fruit already formed, and of the size of hazel-nuts. The vines there had also put forth fresh leaves, and were in bloom. Many foxes, hares, and other game, were destroyed by the fiery shower in the district of Somma and Ottaianot.

His Sicilian Majesty, whose goodness of heart inclines him on all occasions to shew his benevolence and assist the unfortunate, has ordered a considerable sum of money to be distributed among the unhappy sufferers of Ottaiano and its neighbourhood.

On the 18th of September I went upon Mount Vesuvius, accom. panied by Lord Herbert and my usual guide. We could not possibly reach its crater, being covered with a thick smoke, too sulphureous and offensive to be encountered; neither would it have been prudent to have ventured up, had there not been that impediment, as it was evident, from the loud reports we heard from time to time, that there existed still a great fermentation within the bowels of the volcano. We therefore contented ourselves with examining the effects of the late extraordinary eruption on its cone, and in the valley between it and the mountain of Somma.

At Cesi, in the Roman State, towards the Adriatic, there are many such ventaroli; and the inhabitants of that town, by means of leaden pipes, conduct the fresh air from them into the very rooms of their houses, so that by turning a cock they can cool them to any degree. Some who have refined still more upon this luxury, by smaller pipes, bring this cold air under the dining table, so as to cool the bottle of liquor upon it.

+ Having had the honour of being on a shooting party lately with the King of Naples, at the foot of Vesuvius and Somma, several dead hares were found, and we killed others whose backs were quite bare, the fur having been singed off them by the hot ashes.

The conical part of Vesuvius is now covered with fragments of lava and scoria, which makes the ascent much more difficult and troublesome than when it was only covered with minute ashes. — The particularity of this last eruption was, that the lava which usually ran out of the flanks of the volcano, forming cascades, rivers, and rivulets of liquid fire, was now chiefly thrown up from its crater in the form of a gigantic fountain of fire, which falling still in some degree of fusion has, in a manner, cased up the conical part of Vesuvius with a stratum of hard scoriæ; on the side next the mountain of Somma, that stratum is surely more than one hundred feet thick, forming a high ridge. The valley between Vesuvius and Somma has received such a prodigious quantity of lava and other volcanic matter during this last eruption, that it is raised, as is inagined, two hundred and fifty feet or more. Three such eruptions as the last would completely fill up the valley, and by uniting Ve

Sorrentino mentions, in his Istoria del Vesuvio, that the volcano in 1676 vented itself in the like manner. "Non a torrenti modo mando fuori le sue viscere, ma tutti in aria menolla." Such wonderful, violent, and sudden emissions of liquid lava must have been occasioned by some accidental and extraordinary cause; and I was inclined to think, that a sudden communication of water with the lava in fusion might be the occasion of such a phenomenon, particularly as we know that pools of rain-water have been found formerly in caverns within the bowels of Vesuvius; and that a river, supposed to be that anciently called Draco, and which was buried by an ancient eruption, burst out some years ago with such force, from under a stratum of lava at Torre del Greco, as to be sufficient to turn mills there; but a late curious experiment, mentioned by Mons. de Faujas, in his Recherches sur les Volcans eteints, p. 176, seems to contradict my supposition; and that water introduced to the furnace of a volcano, finding there a more rarified air, would not produce an explosion. Mons. Deslandes, Director of the Royal Manufacture of Lookingglass at St. Gobin, made the following experiment in 1768, in the presence of the Duke de la Rochefoucault, Mons. de Faujas, and others. He poured some water upon a quantity of glass in fusion, and which had been in that state in the crucible for twelve hours. The water did not occasion the least fermentation; but, on the contrary, rolled upon its surface, without even producing any smoke, and after having become seemingly red-bot, like the metal in fusion, disappeared in about three minutes, without having occasioned the least explosion. If the great emissions of lava above mentioned were not then occasioned by water mixing with the lava, may not they have been produced by violent subterraneous exhalations having forced their way into the cauldron of the volcano (if I may be allowed the expression) replete with matter in fusion, and blown its whole contents, with whatever opposed its passage, at once into the air?