Sunday night. ter from the crater of Vefuvius laft, our view nothing but heaps of black cinders and afhes, blafted trees, ruined houses, with a few of their scattered inhabitants juft returned with ghaftly, difmayed countenances, to furvey the havock done to their tenements and habitations, and from which they themfelves had with much difficulty efcaped alive on Sunday laft, was fuch a melancholy fcene, as can neither be described or forgotten. Soon after having paffed the town of Somma, we began to perceive that the heat of the fiery fhower which had fallen in its neighbourhood had affected the leaves of the trees and vines, which we found ftill more parched and fhrivelled in proportion as we approached the town of Ottaiano, which may be about three miles from Somma. At about the dif tance of a mile from Somma, we began to perceive fresh cinders or fcoriæ of lava, thinly scattered on the road and in the fields. Every step we advanced we found them of a larger dimenfion, and in greater abundance. At the diftance of a mile and a half from Ottaiano, the foil was totally covered by them, and the leaves and fruit were either entirely ftripped from the trees, or remained thinly on them, fhrivelled and dried up by the intense heat of the volcanic fhower. After having paffed through the moft fertile country, abounding with trees loaded with fruits of every kind, and the most luxuriant vegetation, through gay villages crowded with chearful inhabitants, to come at once to fuch a fcene of defolation and mifery, affording to We found the roof of his Sicilian majefty's fporting feat at Cacciabella much damaged by the fall of, large ftones and heavy fcoriæ, some of which, after having been broken by their fall through the roof, still weighed upwards of thirty pounds. This place, in a direct line, cannot be lefs than four miles from the crater of Vefuvius. The most authentic accounts have been received of the fall of fmall volcanic ftones and cinders (fome of which weighed two ounces) at Benevento, Foggia, and Monte Mileto, upwards of thirty miles from Vefuvius *; but what is most extraordinary (as there was but little wind during the eruption of the eighth of Auguft) minute afhes fell thick that very night upon the town of Manfredonia, which is at the distance of an hundred miles from Vefuvius †. The Prince of Monte Mileto told me, that his fon, the Duke of Popoli, who was at Monte Mileto the 8th of Auguft, had been alarmed by the fhower of cinders that fell there, some of which he had fent to Naples weighing two ounces; and that ftones of an ounce had fallen upon an estate of his ten miles farther off. Monte Mileto is about thirty miles from the volcano. The Abbe Galini, well known in the literary world, told me, that his fifter, a nun in a Convent at Manfredonia, had wrote to enquire after him, imagining that Naples must have been deftroyed, when they, at fo great a dif tance, had been fo much alarmed by a fhower of minute afhes, which fell on that city at eleven o'clock at night, Aug. 8, as to open all the churches, and go to prayers. As the great eruption happened at nine o'clock at night, the alhes inuft have travelled an hundred miles within the short space of two hours. Thefe facts feem to confirm the extreme fuppofed height of the column of fire that iffued from the crater of Vesuvius laft Sunday night, and are greatly in fupport of what we find recorded in the history of Vesuvius with respect to the fall of its afhes at an amazing distance, and in a fhort space of time, during its violent eruptions. We proceeded from Caccia-bella to Ottaiano, which is a mile nearer to Vefuvius, and is reckoned to contain twelve thousand inhabitants. Nothing could be more difmal than the fight of this town, unroofed, half buried under black fcoriæ and afhes; all the windows towards the mountain broken, and fome of the houses themselves burnt; the streets choaked up with thefe afhes (in fome that were narrow, the ftratum was not lefs than four feet thick); and a few of the inhabitants just returned were employed in clearing them away, and piling up the athes in hillocks to get at their ruined houses. Others were affembled in little groups, enquiring after their friends and neighbours, relating each other's woes, croffing themselves, and lifting up their eyes to Heaven when they mentioned their miraculous efcapes. Some Monks, who were in their convent during the whole of the horrid fhower, gave us the following particulars, which they related with folemnity and precifion. The mountain of Somma, at the foot of which Ottaiano is fituated, hides Vefuvius from its fight, fo that till the eruption became confiderable, it was not visible to them. On Sunday night, when the noife encreased, 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 prepar ing to quit the town, when a fudden violent report was heard; foon after which they found themfelves involved in a thick cloud of smoke and minute afhes: a horrid clashing noife was heard in the air, and pretently fell a deluge of stones and large scoriæ, fome of which fcoriæ were of the diameter of feven or eight feet, and must have weighed more than an hundred pounds before they were broken by their fall, as fome of the fragments of them, which I picked up in the ftreets, ftill weighed upwards of fixty pounds. When thefe large vitrified maffes either ftruck 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 fparks of fire, which communicated their heat to every thing that was combuftible *. In an inftant 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 univerfally, and all the inhabitants would have infallibly been Thefe maffes were formed of the liquid lava, the exterior parts of which had become black and porous by cooling in the long traverfe they had made through the air, whilst the interior parts, lefs expofed, retained an extreme heat, and were perfectly red. burnt burnt in their houses, for it was impoffible for them to ftir out. Some who attempted it with pillows, tables, chairs, the tops of wine casks, &c. on their heads, were either knocked down, or foon driven back to their close quarters under arches, and in the cellars of their houses. Many were wounded, but only two perfons have died of the wounds they received from this dreadful volcanic fhower. To add to the horror of the scene, inceffant volcanic lightning was whisking about the black cloud that furrounded them, and the fulphureous fmell and heat would fcarcely allow them to draw their breath. In this miferable and alarming fituation they remained about twenty-five minutes, when the volcanic ftorm ceafed all at once, and the frightened inhabitants of Ottaiano, apprehending a freth attack from the turbulent mountain, haftily quitted the country, after having depofited the fick and bedridden, at their own defire, in the churches. Had the eruption lafted an hour longer, Ottaiano must have remained exactly in the state of Pompeia, which was buried under the athes of Vefuvius juft 1700 years ago, with most of its inhabitants, whose bones are to this day frequently found under arches and in the cellais of the houses of that an cient city. We were told of many miracles that had been wrought by the images of faints at this place during the late difafter; but, as they are quite foreign to my purpose, I thall, as ufual, pafs them over in filence. The palace of the Prince of Ot taiano is fituated on an eminence above the town, and nearer the mountain: the fteps leading up to it, being deeply covered with volcanic matter, refembled the cone of Vefuvius, and the white marble ftatues on the baluftrade made a fingular appearance -peeping from under the black afhes, which had entirely covered both the baluftrade and their pedeftals. The roof of the palace was totally deftroyed, and the windows were broken; but the house itself, being ftrongly built, had not fuffered much. It We had an opportunity of seeing here exactly the quality of the dreadful thower, 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. was compofed of the fcoria of fresh lava much vitrified, great and finall, mixed with fragments of ancient folid lavas of different forts: many pieces were enveloped by the new lava, which formed a cruft about them; and others were only flightly varnished by the fresh lava. Thefe kind of ftones being very compact, and fome weighing eight or ten pounds, muft have fallen with greater force than the heavier fcoriæ, which were very porous, and had the great surface above mentioned. The palace of Ottaiano is built on a thick ftratum of ancient lava, which ran from the mountain of Somma when in its active volcanic ftate. Under this ftratum we were fhewn three grottoes, from which iffues a conftant extreme cold wind, and at times with impetuofity, and a noife like water dafhing upon rocks. They are G 3 fut fhut up with doors like cellars, and are made ufe of as fuch, as alfo to keep provifions freth and to cool liquors. I had never feen these ventaroli before. In my letter to Dr. Maty, upon the nature of the foil round Naples, I have mentioned others of the fame kind that I had met with on Vefuvius, Etna, and in the island of Ischia *. We obferved, that the tract of country completely covered with a ftratum 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 fript of their leaves apd fruit, and had the appearance of being quite burnt up; but, to my great furprize, having visited that country again two days ago, I faw thofe very trees, which were apple, pear, peach, and apricot, in bloffom again, and fome with the fruit already formed, and of the fize of hazel nuts. The vines there had alfo put forth freth leaves, and were in bloom. Many foxes, hares, and other game, were detroyed by the fiery fhower in the diftrict of Somma and Ottaiano t. His Sicilian majefty, whofe goodnefs of heart inclines him on all occafions to fhew his benevolence and affist the unfortunate, has or dered a confiderable fum of money to be diftributed among the unhappy fufferers of Ottaiana and its neighbourhood. On the 18th of September I went upon Mount Vefuvius, accompanied by Lord, Herbert and my ufual guide, We could not poffibly reach its crater, being covered with a thick fmoke, too ful phureous and offenfive 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. The conical part of Vesuvius is now covered with fragments of lava and scoriæ, which makes the afcent much more difficult and troublesome than when it was only covered with minute afhes. The particularity of this laft eruption was, that the lava which ufually ran out of the flanks of the volcano, forming cafcades, rivers, and rivulets of liquid fire, was now chiefly thrown up from its crater in the form of a gigantic fountain At Cefi, in the Roman State, towards the Adriatic, there are many fuch wentaroli; 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 ftill more upon this luxury, by fmaller pipes, bring this cold air under the dining table, fo as to cool the bottle of liquor upon it. + Having had the honour of being on a fhooting party lately with the King of Naples, at the foot of Vefuvius and Somma, feveral dead hares were found, and we killed others whofe backs were quite bare, the fur having been finged off of them by the hot afhes, of of fire, which falling ftill in fome degree of fufion, has, in a manner, cafed up the conical part of Vefuvius with a ftratum of hard fcoriæ: on the fide next the mountain of Somma, that ftratum is furely more than one hundred feet thick, forming a high ridge. The valley between Vefuvius and Somma tras received fuch a prodigious quantity of lava and other volcanic matter during this laft eruption, that it is raised, as is imagined, two hundred and fifty feet or more. Three fuch eruptions as the laft would completely fill up the valley, and, by uniting Vefuvius and Somma, form them into one mountain, as they moft probably were before the great eruption in the reign of Titus. In fhort, I found the whole face of Vefuvius changed. Thofe curious channels in which the lava ran in the month of May laft, are all buried. The volcano appears to have likewife encreased in height; the form of the crater is changed, a great piece of its rim towards Somma being wanting; and on the fide towards the fea it is also broken. There are fome very large cracks towards the point of the cone of the volcano, which makes it probable, that more of the borders of the crater will fall in. The ridge of fresh volcanic matter on the cone of Vefuvius towards Somma, and the thick ftratum in the valley, are likewife full of cracks, from which there iffues a conftant fulphureous smoke that tinges them and the circumjacent fcoriæ and cinders with a deep yellow, or Sorrentino mentions, in his Iftoria del Vefuvio, that the volcano in 1676 vented itself in the like manner: "Non a torrenti modo mando fuori le fue vifcere, ma tutti in aria menolla." Such wonderful, violent, and fudden emiffions of liquid lava must have been occafioned by fome accidental and extraordinary caufe; and I was inclined to think, that a fudden communication of water with the lava in fufion might be the occafion of fuch a phænomenon, particularly as we know that pools of rain-water have been found formerly in caverns within the bowels of Vefuvius; and that a river, fuppofed to be that anciently called Draco, and which was buried by an ancient eruption, burst out fome years ago with fuch force, from under a ftratum of lava at Torre del Greco, as to be fufficient to turn mills there; but a late curious experiment, mentioned by Monf. de Faujas, in his Recherches fur les Volcans éteints, p. 176, feems to contradict my fuppofition; and that water introduced to the furnace of a volcano, finding there a more rarefied air, would not produce an explosion. Monf. Deflaudes, Director of the Royal Manufacture of Looking glafs at St. Gobin, made the following experiment in 1768, in the prefence of the Duke de Ja Rochefoucault, Monf. de Faujas, and others. He poured fome water upon a quantity of glafs in fufion, and which had been in that ftate in the crucible for twelve hours. The water did not occafion the leaft fermentation, but, on the contrary, rolled upon its furface, without even producing any fmoke; and after having become feemingly red-hot, like the metal in fufion, difappeared in about three minutes, without having occafioned the leaft explofion. If the great emiffions of lava above mentioned were not then occafioned by water mixing with the lava, may not they have been produced by violent fubterraneous exhalations having forced their way into the cauldron of the volcano (if I may be allowed the expreffion) replete with matter in fufion, and blown its whole contents, with whatever oppoled its paffage, at once into the air? |