386 Notice of an Eruption in Vesuvius February/ 1832. 



I had visited Albano previously to receiving your letter, and 

 think, from what I saw there, that the opinion you mention as 

 to the craters of elevation and eruption is correct. The section 

 you sent me I find quite correct. I regret I have not received 

 the copy of Turnbull Christie's memoir, and that I have not 

 Daubeny's paper on Sicily. By great good fortune I just arri- 

 ved a few days before Hoffmann, who is now on his road north- 

 wards, after a residence of seventeen months in Sicily. At first 

 he intended to have remained but comparatively a short time, 

 but he found so much that was novel and unknown, in the course 

 of his investigations, that at last they were protracted to the 

 period I have mentioned. Through his kindness and liberality 

 I have seen his maps and sections, which are most complete and 

 valuable, and, taken in conjunction with the monograph he in- 

 tends to publish, will, I am sure, form a most important addi- 

 tion to geological science. He found some of Daubeny's obser- 

 vations incorrect, especially in regard to a great formation which 

 the Professor thought tertiary, whereas it turns out to be se- 

 condary, a part of the great green-sand and chalk formation. 

 Hoffmann remained six weeks nearly upon Etna, and his disco- 

 veries in regard to Von Buch's views as to craters are most cu- 

 rious ; also his observations in another part of the island, in con- 

 firmation of the same geologist's theory of the origin of rock-salt 

 and gypsum. I asked him about the Bone Caves, and men- 

 tioned to him the distinction Christie seemed to draw between 

 caves containing simply bone-breccia, and those containing also 

 marine shells ; and he said, that though such was the case, yet 

 no line could be drawn between them. LyelFs account of the 

 high level at which the quaternary deposits occur is more than 

 confirmed ; for in the interior of the island Hoffmann found 

 them abounding in shells, similar to those of the Mediterranean, 

 nearly 3000 feet above the level of the sea. I am happy to s«^y 

 Sir Walter Scott is in great good health, and drives about con- 

 tinually, though I believe he enters but little into society. He 

 is highly honoured by the King, and receives privileges granted 

 to no one else. Sir Walter proposes taking a trip to Greece 

 during the spring. I start for Sicily on Saturday, intending to 

 complete my examination of the vicinity of Naples on my re- 

 turn. — Yours, &c. Thomas Jameson Torrie. 



Naples, 22d February 1832. 



