266 Volcanoes. 



6th of September 1815, there was an earthquake. The 

 mountain smoked forty-two days, and there were eleven 

 thunder storms. On the Gth, 7th, and 11th of January the 

 effects of the lightning were tremendous. 



1816, no earthquakes. On the 1 3th of August there was 

 a great noise, from the fall of part of the interior side of the 

 crater. Ten thunder storms. 



18th of October 1817, an earthquake. The mountain 

 smoked twenty-two days. There were eight thunder storms. 



During 1818 we had twenty-five earthquakes. The most 

 violent was in the neighbourhood of Catania, on the 20th of 

 February. The mountain smoked twenty-four days. No 

 thunder. 



Such are the phenomena which characterise an aerial vol- 

 cano in the phase of moderate activity. The details them- 

 selves will have little interest to the general reader ; but no 

 description would give so adequate a conception of its ever- 

 changing phenomena. In the minds of those who are unac- 

 customed to witness volcanic disturbances, these effects of 

 volcanic causes in moderate activity would make an indelible 

 impression ; but those who had ever witnessed an eruption 

 from an elevated volcano, after a period of long quiescence, 

 would scarcely stay to regard these comparatively puny efforts. 

 We now pass on to detail a few examples of activity in the 

 phase of prolonged intermittences. The difficulty now is, not 

 to find a characteristic type, but to choose from the variety 

 of authenticated and interesting details we find in the page 

 of history. 



Vesuvius was in this phase previously to the violent eruption 

 of 1794. A brief notice of the phenomena which attended 

 this period of activity may give some notion of the violence 

 of volcanic agency after a lengthened period of repose. 



The first proof of the approach of this dreadful eruption 

 was during the night of the 12th of June, when a severe 

 shock of earthquake was felt in Naples and the surrounding 

 country. Nothing more occurred to rouse the fears of the 

 inhabitants till the evening of the 15th, when the earth was 

 again violently agitated. Shortly after this an opening was 

 formed in the western base of the mountain cone, which, on 

 after examination, was found to be 2375 ft. in length, and 

 237 ft. in breadth, and a stream of lava was ejected. Not 

 long after the volcanic action had commenced, four distinct 

 hills were formed, composed of lava, from each of which 

 stones and other ignited substances were thrown in such quick 

 succession, that it appeared as though they were each eject- 

 ing a vast flame of fire. At this time the lava flowed in great 



