a celebrated volcano of Italy, six miles east from the city of Naples. This mountain has two tops; one of which only goes by the name of Vesuvius, the other being now called Somma; but Sir William Hamilton is of opinion, that the latter is what the ancients called Vesuvius.

The perpendicular height of Vesuvius is only 3700 feet, though the ascent from the foot to the top is three Italian General miles. One side of the mountain is well cultivated and terraced, producing great plenty of vines; but the south and west sides are entirely covered with cinders and ashes; while a sulphurous smoke constantly issues from the top, sometimes attended with the most violent explosions of stones, the emission of great streams of lava, and all the other attendants of a most formidable volcano. The first of these eruptions recorded in history took place in the year 79; at which time the two cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were entirely buried under the stones and ashes thrown out. In recorded history, numbers of people lost their lives, among whom was Pliny the Elder.

It is the opinion of the best judges, however, that this eruption was by no means the first that had ever happened. The very streets of those cities which were at that time overwhelmed are said to be partly paved with lava. Since that time 30 different eruptions have been recorded, some of which have been extremely violent. In the year 1538, a mountain, three miles in circumference and a quarter of a mile in perpendicular height, was thrown up in the course of one night. In the year 1766, Sir William Hamilton, ambassador to his Sicilian Majesty, began to observe the phenomena of this mountain; and since that time the public has been favoured with much more exact and authentic accounts of the various changes which have taken place in Vesuvius than what were to be had before.

The first great eruption taken notice of by this gentleman was that of 1767, which, though very violent, was mild in comparison with that of 1538.

From this time (1767) Vesuvius never ceased for ten years to send forth smoke, nor were there many months in which it did not throw out stones, scoriae, and cinders; which, in 1767 to 1779, were usually followed by lava; so that from the year 1767 to 1779 there were nine eruptions, some of them very considerable. In the month of August that year, however, an eruption took place, which, for its extraordinary and terrible appearance, may be reckoned among the most remarkable of any recorded concerning this or any other volcano.

During the whole month of July the mountain continued in a state of fermentation. Subterraneous explosions and the great rumbling noises were heard; quantities of smoke were thrown up with great violence, sometimes with red-hot stones, scoriae, and ashes; and towards the end of the month these symptoms increased to such a degree as to exhibit, in the night time, the most beautiful fire-works that can be imagined.

On Thursday 5th August the volcano appeared most violently agitated; a white and sulphurous smoke issued continually and impetuously from its crater, one puff seeming to impel another; so that a mass of them was soon accumulated, to appearance, four times the height and size of the volcano itself. These clouds of smoke were exceedingly white, so that the whole resembled an immense accumulation of bales of the white cotton. In the midst of this very white smoke, vast quantities of stones, scoriae, and ashes, were thrown up to the height of 2000 feet; and a quantity of of liquid lava, seemingly very heavy, was lifted up just high enough to clear the rim of the crater, and take its way down the sides of the mountain. This lava, having run violently for some hours, suddenly ceased, just before it had reached the cultivated parts of the mountain, near four miles from the spot whence it issued. The heat, all this day, was intolerable at the towns of Somma and Otaiano; and was sensibly felt at Palma and Lauri, which are much farther off. Reddish ashes fell so thick on the two former, that the air was darkened, so that objects could not be distinguished at the distance of ten feet. Long filaments of a vitrified matter, like spun glass, were mixed, and fell with these ashes; several birds in cages were suffocated, and the leaves of the trees in the neighbourhood of Somma were covered with white and very corrosive salt.

About 12 at night, on the 7th, the fermentation of the mountain seemed greatly to increase. Our author was watching the motions of the volcano from the mole at Naples, which has a full view of it. Several glorious picturesque effects had been observed from the reflection of the deep red fire within the crater of Vesuvius, and which mounted high amongst those huge clouds on the top of it: when a summer storm, called in that country a tropa, came on suddenly, and blended its heavy watery clouds with the fulphureous and mineral ones, which were already like so many other mountains piled up on the top of the volcano. At this moment a fountain of fire was shot up to an incredible height, casting to bright a light, that the smallest objects were clearly distinguishable at any place within five miles or more of Vesuvius. The black stormy clouds, passing swiftly over, and at times covering the whole or a part of the bright column of fire, at other times clearing away and giving a full view of it, with the various tints produced by its reverberated light on the white clouds above in contrast with the pale flashes of forked lightning that attended the tropa, formed such a scene as no power of art can express. One of his Sicilian majesty's gamekeepers, who was out in the fields near Otaiano whilst this storm was at its height, was surprized to find the drops of rain scald his face and hands; a phenomenon probably occasioned by the clouds having acquired a great degree of heat in passing through the above mentioned column of fire.

On the 8th the mountain was quiet till towards six o'clock in the evening, when a great smoke began to gather over its crater; and about an hour after a rumbling subterraneous noise was heard in the neighbourhood of the volcano; the usual throws of red-hot stones and scoriae began and increased every instant. The crater, viewed through a telescope, seemed much enlarged by the violence of last night's explosions, and the little mountain on the top was entirely gone. About nine o'clock a most violent report was heard at Portici and its neighbourhood, which shook the houses to such a degree as made the inhabitants run out into the streets. Many windows were broken, and walls cracked by the concussion of the air on this occasion, though the noise was but faintly heard at Naples. In an instant a fountain of liquid transparent fire began to rise, and gradually increased, arrived at last at the amazing height of ten thousand feet and upwards. Puffs of smoke, as black as can possibly be imagined, succeeded one another hastily, and accompanied the red-hot, transparent, and liquid lava, interrupting its splendid brightness here and there by patches of the darkest hue. Within these puffs of smoke, at the very moment of emission, a bright but pale electrical fire was observed playing briskly about in zig-zag lines. The wind was south-west, and, though gentle, was sufficient to carry these puffs of smoke out of the column of fire; and a collection of them by degrees formed a black and extensive curtain behind it; in other parts of the sky it was perfectly clear, and the stars bright. The fiery fountain, of such immense magnitude, on the dark ground just mentioned, made the finest contrast imaginable; and the blaze of it reflected from the surface of the sea, which was at that time perfectly smooth, added greatly to this sublime view.

The lava, mixed with stones and scoria, having risen to the amazing height already mentioned, was partly directed by the wind towards Otaiano, and partly falling, still red-hot and liquid, upon the top of Vesuvius, covered its whole cone, part of that of the summit of Somma, and the valley between them. The falling matter, being nearly as inflamed and vivid as that which was continually issuing fresh from the crater, formed with it one complete body of fire, which could not be less than two miles and a half in breadth, and of the extraordinary height above mentioned, cast a heat to the distance of at least six miles round. The brushwood on the mountain of Somma was soon in a blaze, and the flame of it being of a different colour from the deep red of the matter thrown out by the volcano, and from the filvery blue of the electrical fire, still added to the contrast of this most extraordinary scene.

The black cloud, increasing greatly, once bent towards Naples, and threatened the city with speedy destruction; for it was charged with electrical fire, which kept constantly darting about in bright zig zag lines. This fire, however, rarely quitted the cloud, but usually returned to the great column of fire whence it proceeded; though once or twice it was seen to fall on the top of Somma, and set fire to some dry grass and bushes. Fortunately the wind carried back the cloud just as it reached the city, and had begun to occasion great alarm. The column of fire, however, still continued, and diffused such a strong light, that the most minute objects could be discerned at the distance of ten miles or more from the mountain. Mr Morris informed our author, that at Sorrento, which is twelve miles distant from Vesuvius, he read the title-page of a book by that volcanic light.

All this time the miserable inhabitants of Otaiano were involved in the utmost distress and danger by the showers of the stones which fell upon them, and which, had the eruption continued for a longer time, would most certainly have reduced their town to the same situation with Herculaneum and Pompeii. The mountain of Somma, at the foot of which the town of Otaiano is situated, hides Vesuvius from the view of its inhabitants; 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 flew to the churches, and others were preparing to quit the town, when a sudden and violent report was heard; soon after which they found themselves involved in a thick cloud of smoke and ashes; a horrid clashing noise was heard in the air, and presently fell a vast shower of stones and large pieces of scoriae, some of which were of the diameter of seven or eight feet, which must have weighed more than a hundred pounds before they were broken, as some of the fragments which Sir William Hamilton found in the streets still weighed upwards of 60 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 of ground with vivid sparks of fire, which communicated their heat to every thing that was combustible. These masses were formed of the liquid lava; the exterior parts of which became black and porous by cooling in their fall through such a vast space; whilst the interior parts, less exposed, retained an extreme heat, and were perfectly red.

In an instant the town and country about it was on fire in many parts; for there were several straw huts in the vineyards, 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 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 died of their wounds.

To add to the horror of the scene, incessant volcanic lightning was whistling about the black cloud that surrounded them, and the sulphurous smell and heat would scarcely allow them to draw their breath. In this dreadful situation they remained about 25 minutes, when the volcanic storm ceased all at once, and Vesuvius remained tullen and silent.

Some time after the eruption had ceased, the air continued greatly impregnated with electrical matter. The duke of Cottolengo told our author, that having, about half an hour after the great eruption had ceased, held a Leyden bottle, armed with a pointed wire, out at his window at Naples, it soon became considerably charged. But whilst the eruption was in force, its appearance was too alarming to allow one to think of such experiments.—He was informed also by the prince of Monte Mileto, that his son, the duke of Poli, 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 weight had fallen upon an estate of his ten miles farther off. Monte Mileto is about 30 miles from the volcano. The Abbé Cagliani also related, that his sister, a nun in a convent at Manfredonia, had written to inquire after him, imagining that Naples must have been destroyed, when they, at so great a distance, had been alarmed by a shower of ashes which fell on the city at eleven o'clock at night, so much as to open all the churches, and go to prayers. As the great eruption happened at nine o'clock, these ashes must have travelled an hundred miles in the space of two hours.

Nothing could be more dismal than the appearance of Ottaviano after this eruption. The houses were unroofed, half buried under the black scoriae and ashes; all the windows towards the mountain were broken, and some of the houses themselves burnt; the streets choked up with ashes, in some narrow places not less than four feet thick; and a few of the inhabitants who had just returned, were employed in clearing them away, and piling them up in hillocks, to get at their ruined houses. The palace of the prince of Ottaviano is situated on an eminence above the town, and nearer the mountain. The steps leading up to it were deeply covered with volcanic matter; the roof was totally destroyed, and the windows broken, but the house itself, being strongly built, had not suffered much.

An incredible number of fragments of lava were thrown out during the eruption, some of which were of immense magnitude. The largest measured by Sir William Hamilton was 108 feet in circumference and 17 in height. This was thrown out at least a quarter of a mile clear of the mouth of the volcano. Another, 66 feet in circumference and 19 in height, being nearly of a spherical figure, was thrown out at the same time, and lay near the former. This last had the marks of being rounded, nay almost polished, by continual rolling in torrents or on the sea-shore. Our author conjectures that it might be a spherical volcanic salt, such as that of 45 feet in circumference mentioned by M. de St Fond, in his Treatise of Extinguished Volcanoes. A third of 16 feet in height and 92 in circumference was thrown much farther, and lay in the valley between Vesuvius and the Hermitage. It appeared also, from the large fragments that surrounded this mass, that it had been much larger while in the air.

Vesuvius continued to emit smoke for a considerable time after this great eruption, so that our author was apprehensive that another would soon ensue; but from that time nothing comparable to the above has taken place. From the time of this great eruption to the year 1785 our author kept an exact diary of the operations of Vesuvius, with drawings, showing, by the quantity of smoke, the degree of fermentation within the volcano. The operations of the subterraneous fire, however, appear to be very capricious and uncertain. One day there will be the appearance of a violent fermentation, and the next every thing will be calmed; but whenever there has been a considerable ejection of scoriae and cinders, it has been a constant observation, that the lava soon made its appearance, either by boiling over the crater, or forcing its way through the crevices in the conical part of the mountain. An eruption took place in the month of November 1784, and continued for some time, but without being accompanied with any extraordinary circumstance.

Since that time there have been no remarkable eruptions of this volcano, at least none that have been properly authenticated; though, indeed, Sir William Hamilton observes, that the inhabitants of Naples in general pay little attention to the operations of this volcano, that many of its eruptions pass unnoticed by at least two-thirds of them.