3 S6 Eruption of Mount Vesuvius. 



danger, and were enabled to contemplate, without appre- 

 hension, the objects bv which we were surrounded. What 

 an admirable spectacle ! — Over our head, the volcano, with 

 its smoking lava rushing down the sides of the mountain ; 

 before us, the sea smooth and calm ; the full moon illumi- 

 nating with her mild beams the extremity of the horizon j 

 the clouds and the smoke wafted around the summit of the 

 mountain, and concealing, for a few moments, the vast 

 conflagration, which appeared again more lively and more 

 brilliant : this succession of lights and shades, this contrast 

 of turbulence and tranquillity, this solitude in the midst of 

 such a vast convulsion, produced a multitude of contrary 

 impiessions that cannot be described, but the recollection of 

 which will never be erased. 



We returned about four in the morning to Naples, having 

 spent eight hours in the excursion. 



On the second, the eruption continued the whole day 

 with much greater violence than before ; two currents of 

 lava were formed ; one of these stopped in the morning ; the 

 other, taking an eastern course, spread with great rapidity, 

 and deluged the plain. As our excursion of the preceding 

 night had not enabled us to form anv idea concerning; the 

 progress of the lava, we set out again to observe this extra- 

 ordinary phenomenon. 



Passing through the villages of Portici, Resina, and Torre 

 del Greco, we entered inclosures, consisting of vineyards 

 and corn-fields, into which the lava had penetrated : we ap- 

 proached the current, and I was surprised to find the pro- 

 gress of the lava so different from the conception I had 

 formed of it. 



I had always imagined that the substance of the lava, 

 resembling melted glass, ran in the same manner, and ad- 

 vanced uniformly like a river of fire; and indeed it is ex- 

 tremely probable that in a great number of eruptions it 

 actually exhibits this appearance. On the present occasion, 

 I saw nothing but an accumulation of stones, some of 

 which were of prodigious magnitude, heaped one upon 

 another, to the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and about 

 half a mile in breadth. This formidable mass advanced 



slowly, 



