26 ABOUT VOLCANOS AND EARTHQUAKES. 



o'clock," he says, on Sunday the 8th of August, " there 

 was a loud report, which shook the houses at Portici 

 and its neighbourhood to such a degree, as to alarm the 

 inhabitants and drive them out into the streets. Many 

 windows were broken, and as I have since seen, walls 

 cracked by the concussion of the air from that explosion. 

 .... In one instant a fountain of liquid transparent 

 fire began to rise, and gradually increasing, arrived 

 at so amazing a height, as to strike every one who 

 beheld it with the most awful astonishment. I shall 

 scarcely be credited when I assure you that, to 

 the best of my judgment, the height of this stupen- 

 dous column of fire could not be less than three 

 times that of Vesuvius itself; which, you know, rises 

 perpendicularly near 3700 feet above the level of 

 the sea." (The height by my own measurement in 

 1824 is 3920 feet). "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 their emission from the 

 crater, I could perceive a bright but pale electrical fire 

 playing about in zigzag lines. The liquid lava, mixed 

 with scoriae and stones, after having mounted, I verily 

 believe at least 10,000 feet, falling perpendicularly on 

 Vesuvius, covered its whole cone, part of that of Somma, 

 and the valley between them. The falling matter being 

 nearly as vivid and inflamed as that which was continu- 

 ally issuing fresh from the crater, formed with it one 



