84 HISTORY OF 



had been formed since my last visit, in the middle 

 of the bottom, which I could see was made by 

 the stones, thrown up and fallen back again into 

 the crater. In this new hill remained the two 

 furnaces already mentioned. The one was seen 

 to throw up every three or four minutes, with a 

 dreadful sound, a vast number of red-hot stones, 

 at least three hundred feet higher than my head, 

 as I stood upon the brink ; but as there was no 

 wind, they fell perpendicularly back from whence 

 they had been discharged. The other was rilled 

 with red-hot liquid matter, like that in the furnace 

 of a glass-house ; raging and working like the 

 waves of the sea, with a short abrupt noise. This 

 .matter would sometimes boil over, and run down 

 the side of the conical hill, appearing at first red- 

 hot, but changing colour as it hardened and 

 cooled. Had the wind driven in our faces, we 

 had been in no small danger of stifling by the 

 sulphureous- smoke, or being jkilled by the masses 

 of melted minerals that were shot from the bot- 

 tom. But as the wind was favourable, I had an 

 opportunity of surveying this amazing scene for 

 above an hour and a half together. On the 5th 

 of June, after a horrid noise, the mountain was 

 seen at Naples to work over ; and, about three 

 days after, its thunders were renewed so, that 

 not only the windows in the city, but all the 

 houses shook. From that time it continued to 

 overflow, and sometimes at night were seen co- 

 lumns of fire shooting upward from its summit. 

 On the 10th, when all was thought to be over, 

 the mountain again renewed its terrors, roaring 



