VESUVIUS. 1/9 



which only one eruption, and that an unimportant one 

 {in 1500), took place. 'It was remarked,' says Sir 

 Charles Lyell, ' that throughout this long interval of 

 rest, Etna was in a state of unusual activity, so as 

 to lend countenance to the idea that the great Sicilian 

 volcano may sometimes serve as a channel of discharge 

 to elastic fluids and lava that would otherwise rise to 

 the vents in Campania.' 



Nor was the abnormal activity of Etna the only sign 

 that the quiescence of Vesuvius was not to be looked 

 upon as any evidence of declining energy in the vol- 

 canic system. In 1538 a new mountain was suddenly 

 thrown up in the Phlegrsean Fields a district includ- 

 ing within its bounds Pozzuoli, Lake Avernus, and the 

 Solfatara. The new mountain was thrown up near the 

 shores of the Bay of Baiae. It is 440 feet above the level 

 of the bay, and its base is about a mile and a half in 

 circumference. The depth of the crater is 421 feet, so 

 that its bottom is only six yards above the level of the 

 bay. The spot on which the mountain was thrown up 

 was formerly occupied by the Lucrine Lake ; but the 

 outburst filled up the greater part of the lake, leaving 

 only a small and shallow pool. 



The accounts which have reached us of the formation 

 of this new mountain are not without interest. Falconi, 

 who wrote in 1538, mentions that several earthquakes 

 took place during the two years preceding the outburst, 

 and above twenty shocks on the day and night before 

 the eruption. ' The eruption began on September 29, 

 1538. It was on a Sunday, about one o'clock in the 



