Chap. 47.] produced by the Volcano. 



the lava through which they pafs ; and the fmall cryf- 

 tals of which they are compofed are often tinged with 

 deep or pale yellow, with a bright red like cinnabar, 

 and fometimes with green, or an azure blue. After 

 the late eruption, many pieces of the fcoriae of the 

 frefh lava were found powdered with a lucid fubftance, 

 exactly like the brighter! fteel or iron filings. 



The firft appearance of the mofete, after the late 

 eruption, was on the iyth of June, when a peafant 

 going with an afs to his vineyard, a little above the 

 village of Refma, in a narrow hollow way, the afs 

 dropped down, and feemed to be expiring; the pea- 

 fane was foon fenfible of the mephitic vapour himfelfj 

 and well knowing its fatal effects, dragged the animal 

 out of its influence and it foon recovered. This 

 heavy vapour, when expofed to the open air, does 

 not rife much more than a foot above the furface of 

 the earth, but when it gets into a confined place, like 

 a cellar or well, it rifes and fills as any other fluid 

 would j having filled a well, it rifes above it about 

 a foot high, and then bending over, falls to the earth, 

 on which it fpreads, always preferving its ufual level. 

 Wherever this vapour iffues, a wavering in the air is 

 perceptible, like that which is produced by the burning 

 of charcoal , and when it iffues from a fifTure near 

 any plants or vegetables, the leaves of thofe plants 

 are feen to move, as if they were agitated by a gentle 

 wind. It is extraordinary, that although there doea 

 not appear to be any poifonous quality in this vapour, 

 which in every refped refembles fixed air, it fhould 

 prove fo very fatal to the vineyards, fome thoufand 

 acres pf which were deitroyed by it after the late 

 eruption : when it penetrates to the roots of the vines, 

 it dries them up, and kills the plant. A peafant in, 

 the neighbourhood of Refma, having fuffered by the 

 A a 4 mofete, 



