3-56 Curious Phenomena at Sienna. [Book Vf . 



dies at mid-day; and one day, during the eruption, the 

 darknefs fpread over Beneventum, which is thirty miles 

 from Vefuvius. 



The archbiiliop of Taranto, in a letter to Naples, 

 and dated from that city the i8th of June, obferves, 

 * We are involved in a thick cloud of minute volcanic 

 allies, and we imagine that there muft be a great erup- 

 tion either at Mount Etna, or of Stromboli.' The 

 bifhop did not fufpecl: their having proceeded from 

 Vefuvius, which is about two hundred and fifty miles 

 from Taranto. Afhes alfo fell, during the late erup- 

 tion, at the very extremity of the province of Lecce, 

 which is ftill farther off; at Martino, near Taranto, 

 a houfe was ftruck and much damaged by the light- 

 ning from one of the clouds. In the accounts of the 

 great eruption of Vefuvius in 1631, mention is made 

 of the extenfive progrefs of the afhes from Vefuvius, 

 and of the damage done by the ferilli, or volcanic 

 lightning, which attended them in their courfe. 



Our author in this place mentions a very extraordi- 

 nary circumftance, which happened near Sienna, on 

 the Tufcan ftate, about eighteen hours after the com- 

 mencement of the late eruption of Vefuvius on the 

 1 5th of June, although he adds, that phenomenon 

 muft have no relation to the eruption; it was com> 

 municated to him in the following words by the earl 

 of Briftol, bifhop of Derry, in a letter dated from 

 Sienna, July 12, 1794: ' In the midft of a moft 

 violent thunder- ftorm, about a dozen ftones of various- 

 weights and dimenfions fell at the feet of different 

 people, men, women, and children ; the ftones are of 

 a quality not found in any part of the Siennefe terri- 

 tory ; they fell about eighteen hours after the enormous 

 eruption of Vefuvius, which circumftance leaves a 

 choice of difficulties in the folution of this extraor- 

 dinary 



