122 TRAVELS THROUGH 



uial of thefe books will eafily prove it to you. I 

 will not detract from their character. I will rather 

 flip over the particulars in which they may be 

 depended upon. But they contain many grofs 

 errors, efpecially on account of the mineralo- 

 gical denominations, and of Natural Hiltory, 

 which are entirely inconfiflent with Nature, and 

 miflead the reader. For example, P. la Torre en- 

 tirely miftakes Nature, when, fpeaking of the white 

 polygone, or garnet-like merl-cryftaliifations in 

 the lava, he calls them marcafites ; moreover, 

 obferving with much danger to his life the inner 

 {Iructure of Vefuvius, when that mountain was 

 burning, and pretending to have feen in its funnel 

 as it were timber and poles ^ from whofe exterior 

 appearance he draws a conclufion upon the ori- 

 ginal rocks of the mountain, which, however, 

 he does not determine : 1 certainly do not wrong 

 him, aflerting, that his pains and his danger have 

 been good for nothing. Such have been too, and 

 will ever be, the pains of thofe, who* for inftruc- 

 tion's fake, climb the mountain over and over 

 again, efpecially when it is burning. They never 

 will meet with any thing but lava and volcanic 

 alhes, which cap Vefuvius all around and cover 

 the whole country about Naples. I have been 

 but twice at the top. Once I ventured into its 

 funnel, which, in fome depth, is covered by a lava 



floor i 



