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cracks were made in it, from some of which water 

 issued ; at the same time the sea immediately adjoin- 

 ing the plain dried up about two hundred paces, so 

 that the fish were left on the sand, a prey to the inhab- 

 itants of Pozzuoli. At last, on September 29th, about 

 two o'clock in the night, the earth opened near the 

 lake, and discovered a horrid mouth, from which were 

 furiously vomited smoke, fire, stones, and mud com- 

 posed of ashes, making at the time of the opening a 

 noise like the loudest thunder. The stones which fol- 

 lowed were by the flames converted to pumice, and 

 some of these were larger than an ox. The stones 

 went about as high as a cross-bow will carry, and then 

 fell down, sometimes on the edge, and sometimes into 

 the mouth itself. The mud was of the color of ashes, 

 and at first very liquid, then by degrees less so ; and 

 in such quantities that in less than twelve hours, with 

 the help of the above-mentioned stones, a mountain 

 was raised of 1,000 paces in height. Not only Pozzu- 

 oli and the neighboring country were full of this mud, 

 but the city of Naples also ; so that many of its palaces 

 were defaced by it. This eruption lasted two nights 

 and two days without intermission, though not always 

 with the same force ; the third day the eruption ceased, 

 and I went up with many people to the top of the new 

 hill, and saw down into its mouth, which was a round 

 cavity about a quarter of a mile in circumference, in 

 the middle of which the stones which had fallen were 



