RemarJcs on Mount Vesuvius* 1 5 



to open another mouth m the side ; but should it do so it will 

 be at the hot crevice before described. Since the eruption of 

 1822, the mountain has never smoked from the bottom of the 

 crater till now. Occasionally for some time the mountain has 

 discharged stones at certain intervals, but not having suffi- 

 cient force to throw them to a distance, they fall in again. 

 Fire is seen most nights in the crater. From these data it is 

 presumed that an eruption of stones will probably take place, 

 but that we can scarcely look for any lava, especially as the 

 mountain has in a great measure disgorged "itself in the tre- 

 mendous explosion of 1822, when all the magnificence of for- 

 mer occasions has been united, and of which Salvatore him- 

 self never speaks without enthusiasm. 



All the internal resources of the earth seem to participate 

 in the convulsions of Vesuvius, and the very skies to be sha- 

 ken above. The slumbering fires of Mtna. and Hecla are 

 . awakened, while Solfaterra, and the neighbouring sulphurous 

 emissaries are drained of their borrowed lights. At eruptions 

 .in general, and the last one in particular, the most terrific 

 thunder and lightning ever remembered by our guide and 

 his father took place, and gave additional force to the scene. 

 The sea regularly retires to a great extent from his troubled 

 bed, while shells in calcareous masses are thrown from the 

 volcano. The weight of the air diminishes by whole inches of 

 mercury ; and I am informed that the mountain is most bril- 

 liant in snowy weather, and under the influence of the full 

 moon. * Here is a mass of unison and sympathy of all the 



* I cannot help mentioning a very extraordinary circumstance recounted 

 in Mrs Stark's well known work on the Continent, which may serve 

 partly to determine a much disputed point in natural philosophy. On 

 June 14, 1794, the day after the destruction of the town of Torre del 

 Greco, by Vesuvius, Professor Santi, then residing at Pienza, a town near 

 Siena, (who related the circumstance to Mrs S.) observed a dense cloud 

 coming from the south-east, the direction of Vesuvius, (200 horizontal 

 miles distant,) which discharged noises like cannon, then burst into flames, 

 and a shower of stones fell on the country for seven or eight miles round. 

 These stones were found to consist of grey lava, exactly such as is found 

 on Vesuvius. At this moment the mountain was producing one of the most 

 tremendous eruptions ever witnessed.— See Stark's Directions, 5th Ed. p. 

 26.5. 



