ITALY. LETTER XI. IZ$ 



floor i or, as Miners would call it, a lava-roof 

 (buhne) ; but the danger to be fuffbcated, as well 

 as to fink with that precarious roof down to bot- 

 tomlefs perdition, did not procure me a fight of 

 any thing but of fulphur, frnoke, and fire, which 

 iflue from its fi fibres. Therefore, to get as nearly 

 as poflible acquainted with the inner nature of 

 Vefuvius, I fee no means but a mineralogical exa- 

 mination of the adjacent country and its volcanical 

 productions ; this will bring us to probable con- 

 clufions bordering on- certainty : and thefe will do, 

 as long it will be impofiible to fink fhafts into the 

 undermoft Vefuvian rocks, and thence to fetch 

 famples to convince ftubborn incredulity. " No-- 

 " tune vis atque majeftas in omnibus momentis fide 

 " caret, fi quis modo paries ejus ac non totam com- 

 " pkftatur animo" Plin. N. H. lib. vii. c. i. 



The country about Naples, the ground on which 

 the city is fituated, the Paufilippo, Pozzuolo, as 

 far as Cape Mifeno and further, the neighbour- 

 hood of Portia, of Vcfuvius, and beyond Pompeja : 

 in a word, every hill and plain which inclofes the 

 Golfo at the Chiaja and the city, is compofed of 

 yellowim, brown, black, or grey ames, mixed 

 with pumice (tones, and large torrents or beds of 

 lavas. The whole is volcanic. Nobody can 

 doubt of thefe afhes and lavas being, in former 

 times, thrown out from feveral now extinct vol- 



canos, 



