PREFACE. xi 



Italy offers many inftructlve phenomena to 

 that purpofe, and as the writer of thefe Let- 

 ters was eminently qualified to treat of them 

 with propriety. I mall not enlarge upon 

 the vicinity of the Alps, the nature of the 

 Apennine mountains, the many marble quar- 

 ries, the great variety of foreign marbles 

 employed by the Ancients, the alum- works 

 at Tolfa and in the Solfatara, nor the increafe 

 of the fea, which Mr. Ferber has taken no- 

 tice of. The volcanos of this country, how- 

 ever, and efpecially Vefuvius, claim particular 

 attention. 



Being iituated in the neighbourhood of a 

 large and populous city, this mountain had 

 ft ruck the fancy, and engaged the curiofity, 

 of philofophers and travellers ever fince the 

 time of Pliny. However, the many defcrip- 

 tions of thefe great laboratories of Nature, 

 which hitherto have been given to the pub- 

 lic, are far from being fatisfaclory to 

 Naturalifts. Entirely taken up withhiftori- 

 cal accounts of their various eruptions, and of 

 the horrors and devastations which have at- 

 tended them, they indulged themfelves either 



in 



