414 DOMAIN XII. VOLCANIC. 



fifteen miles from the crater, the sky suddenly 

 darkened, and the people were obliged to light 

 candles, though it wanted an hour and a half to 

 sunset, as neither business nor pleasure could be 

 followed amidst the thick darkness. It seemed 

 as if the darkest hour of the night had fallen at 

 once ; and the inhabitants neither knew where 

 to flee, nor what was the cause, as they only 

 heard a rustling murmur. This uncertainty con- 

 tinued for twenty-five minutes; after which be- 

 gan a rain of black drosses, the largest of which 

 were nine ounces in weight. But at Mojo and 

 Roccella they were of thirteen ounces ; and many 

 in the fields received wounds in the head and 

 arms. These drosses had so much heated the 

 atmosphere, that a copious fall of rain-water, 

 which accompanied them, was quite hot. 



" The eruption was often repeated in the fol- 

 lowing months; and the grandeur of the scene was 

 increased by frequent forked lightnings, which 

 broke forth in the midst of the black smoke, 

 having commonly one line perpendicular to the 

 axis of the cone of the crater, while at the other 

 extremity another rose at right angles, and was 

 lost amidst the smoke and the flames. This long 

 eruption ended in July; having formed on all 

 the upper part of the mountain a stratum of 

 many feet of light drosses, into which form the 



