Lesson xxxvi.] VOLCANOS. 271 



I could only do it by lying it to my cane. The 

 lava does not run in liquid waves : it resembles an 

 immense quantity of coals on fire, which an in- 

 vincible strength had heaped up and pushed on. 

 with violence. When it met with a wall, it col- 

 lected to the height of seven or ten feet, burnt it, 

 and overthrew it at once. I saw some walls get 

 rod hot, like iron, and melt, if I may use the ex- 

 pression, into the lava. In its greatest speed and 

 on an horizontal road, I reckoned that the torrent 

 travelled at the rate of eighteen inches a minute. 

 Its smell resembled that of iron red hot." 



A still more recent eruption will make the year 

 J810 an epoch in the annals of Vesuvius, on ac- 

 count of the manner in which it began, and the 

 disasters it has produced. It is considered as a 

 very extraordinary circumstance, that this eruption 

 was not preceded by the usual indications ; every 

 convulsion of Vesuvius being previously announ- 

 ced by the drying up of the wells of Naples. This 

 phenomenon did not take place on this occasion, 

 and, to the great surprise of the inhabitants, V esu- 

 vius began to emit flames on the night of the 10th 

 of September. 



On the morning of the llth, the flames became 

 more intense, and the lava began to flow from the 

 east and south-east sides of the mountain. To- 

 wards evening the conflagration increased, and 

 about twilight two grand streams of fire were seen 

 to flow down the ridge of the Volcano ; night pro- 

 duced no change in this state of things. 



On the morning of the 1 2th, a hollow sound was 

 v 4 heard, 



