3 $2. Volcanic Whirlwinds. [Book VI. 



noftrils ; and even with that precaution they conlJ .^ot 

 refill: long, the fumes cf the vitriolic acid were fo ex- 

 ceedingly penetrating, and of fuch a fuffoca,ting qua- 

 lity. They found in one a double crater, like two 

 funnels joined together j, and in all there was fome lu> 

 tie fmoke and depofitions of falts and fulphurs, of the 

 various colours abovementioned, juft as is commonly 

 feen adhering to the inner walls of the principal crater 

 of Vefuvius. 



Two or three days after they had been there, one 

 of the -new mouths, into which they had looked, fud- 

 denly made a great explofion of flones, fmoke, and 

 afhes, which would certainly have proved fatal to any 

 one who might unfortunately have been there at the 

 time of the explofion. We read of a fimilar accident 

 having proved fatal to more than twenty people, who 

 had the curiofity to look into the crater of the Monte 

 Nuovo, near Puzzuoli, a few days after its formation, 

 in the year 1538. The ifth of Auguft, Sir William 

 faw,a fudden explofion of fmoke and ames thrown to 

 an extreme height out of the great crater of Vefuvius, 

 that muft have deftroyed any one within half a mile 

 of it ; and yet on the 1 9th of July a party not only 

 had vifited that crater, but had delcended 170 feet 

 within it. While they were on the mountain, two 

 vhirlwinds, exactly like thofe that form water-fpouts 

 at fea, made their appearance; and one of them, which 

 was very near, made a ftrange milling noife, and hav- 

 ing taken up a great quantity of the fine afhes, formed 

 them into an elevated fpiral column, which, with a 

 whirling motion and great rapidity, was carried towards 

 the mountain of Somma, where it broke and was dif- 

 perfed. One of our author's fervants, employed in 

 collecting of fulphur, or fal ammoniac, which cryftal- 

 lizes near the fumaroli, as they are called (and which 



are 



