THE EARTH. 81 



was too late to retire ; and his companions hardly 

 escaped to give an account of the misfortune. 

 It was in that dreadful eruption that the city of 

 Herculaneum was overwhelmed, the ruins of 

 which have lately been discovered at sixty feet 

 distance below the surface, and, what is still more 

 remarkable, forty feet below the bed of the sea. 

 One of the most remarkable eruptions of this 

 mountain was in the year 1707 ; which is finely 

 described by Valetta, a part of whose description 

 I shall beg leave to translate. 



" Towards the latter end of summer, in the 

 year 1707, the Mount Vesuvius, that had for a 

 long time been silent, now began to give some 

 signs of commotion. Little more than internal 

 murmurs at first were heard, that seemed to con- 

 tend within the lowest depths of the mountain ; 

 no flame, nor even any smoke, was as yet seen. 

 Soon after some smoke appeared by day, and a 

 flame by night, which seemed to brighten all the 

 Campania. At intervals also it shot off substances 

 with a sound very like that of artillery, but which, 

 even at so great a distance as we were at, infinitely 

 exceeded them in greatness. Soon after it began 

 to throw up ashes, which becoming the sport of 

 the winds, fell at great distances, and some many 

 miles. To this succeeded showers of stones, 

 which killed many of the inhabitants of the valley, 

 and made a dreadful ravage among the cattle. 

 Soon after a torrent of burning matter began to 

 roll down the sides of the mountain, at first with 

 a slow and gentle motion, but soon with increas- 

 ed celerity. The matter thus poured out, when 



VOL. i. F 



