Chap. 47.] New -formed Craters. 353 



are the fpots whence the hot vapour iflues out of the 

 frefh lavas) found, to his great furprize, an exceeding 

 cold wind iffue from a fiffure v?ry near the hot fuma- 

 roli upon his leg. In a vineyard not in the fame line 

 with the new-formed mountains juft described, but in 

 a right line from them, at the diftance of little more 

 than a mile from Torre del Greco, they found three or 

 four more of thefe ne \v-to nned mountains with craters, 

 out of which the lava flowed, and by uniting with the 

 ftreams that came from the higher mouths, and add- 

 ing to their heat and fluidity, enabled the whole cur- 

 rent to make fo rapid a progrefs over the unfortunate 

 town, as fcarcely to allow its inhabitants fufficient time 

 to efcape with their lives. The rich vineyards be- 

 longing to the Torre del Greco, and which produced 

 the wine called Ladrima Chrifti, that were buried, 

 and totally deftroyed by this lava, confided of more 

 than three thoufand acres ; but the deftru&ion of the 

 vineyards by the torrents of mud and water, at the 

 foot of the mountain of Somma, was much more 

 extenfive. 



In that part of the country, the firft figns of a torrent 

 that our author met with, was near the village of the 

 Madonna dell' Arco, and he pafied feveral others be- 

 tween that and the town of Ottaiano j one near Tro- 

 chia, and two near the town of Somma, were the 

 moft confiderable, and not lefs than a quarter of a 

 mile in breadth > and, according to the teftimony of eye- 

 witnefles, when they poured down from the mountain 

 of Somma, they were from twenty to thirty feet high j 

 the matter of thefe torrents was a liquid glutinous mud, 

 compofed of fcorise, afhes, ftone (fome of an enormous 

 fize) mixed with trees that had been torn up by the 

 roots. Such torrents, as it may well be imagined, were 

 irrefiftible, and carried off every thing before them ; 

 VOL. II. A a houfes, 



