340 Mary Somerville. 



elected an honorary member of the Accademia 

 Pontoniana. 



"We were much interested in Vesuvius, which, for 

 several months, was in a state of great activity. 

 At first, there were only volumes of smoke and 

 some small streams of lava, but these were followed 

 by the most magnificent projections of red hot 

 stones and rocks rising 2,000 feet above the top of 

 ths mountain. Many fell back again into the crater, 

 but a large portion were thrown in fiery showers 

 down the sides of the cone. At length, these 

 beautiful eruptions of lapilli ceased, and the lava 

 flowed more abundantly, though, being intermittent 

 and always issuing from the summit, it was quite 

 harmless ; volumes of smoke and vapour rose from 

 the crater, and were carried by the wind to a great 

 distance. In sunshine the contrast was beautiful, 

 between the jet-black smoke and the silvery- white 

 clouds of vapour. At length, the mountain re- 

 turned to apparent tranquillity, though the violent 

 detonations occasionally heard gave warning that 

 the calm might not last long. At last, one evening, 

 in November, 1868, when one of my daughters and 

 1 were observing the mountain through a very 

 good telescope, lent us by a friend, we distinctly saw 

 a new crater burst out at the foot of the cone in the 

 Atrio del Cavallo, and bursts of red-hot lapilli and 



