82 HISTORY OF 



cold, seemed, upon inspection, to be of vitrified 

 earth, the whole united into a mass of more than 

 stony hardness. But what was particularly ob- 

 servable was, that upon the whole surface of these 

 melted materials a light spongy stone seemed to 

 float, while the lower body was of the hardest 

 substance, of which our roads are usually made. 

 Hitherto there were no appearances but what 

 had been often remarked before ; but on the third 

 or fourth day, seeming flashes of lightning were 

 shot forth from the mouth of the mountain, with 

 a noise far exceeding the loudest thunder. These 

 flashes, in colour and brightness, resembled what 

 we usually see in tempests, but they assumed a 

 more twisted and serpentine form. After this 

 followed such clouds of smoke and ashes, that the 

 whole city of Naples, in the midst of the day, was 

 involved in nocturnal darkness, and the nearest 

 friends were unable to distinguish each other in 

 this frightful gloom. If any person attempted to 

 stir without torch-light, he was obliged to re- 

 turn, and every part of the city was filled with 

 supplications and terror. At length, after a con- 

 tinuance of some hours, about one o'clock at 

 midnight, the wind blowing from the north, the 

 stars began to be seen ; the heavens, though it 

 was night, began to grow brighter ; and the erup- 

 tions, after a continuance of fifteen days, to lessen. 

 The torrent of melted matter was seen to extend 

 from the mountain down to the shore ; the people 

 began to return to their former dwellings, and the 

 whole face of nature to fesume its former ap- 

 pearance." 



