VESUVIUS. 205 



cone itself ; then turning, they fell all around in noble 

 curves. They covered nearly half the cone of Vesuvius 

 with fire. Huge masses of white smoke were vomited 

 forth by the disturbed mountain, and formed them- 

 selves, at a height of many thousands of feet above 

 the crater, into a huge, ever-moving canopy, through 

 which, from time to time, were hurled pitch-black jets 

 of volcanic dust, and dense vapors, mixed with cas- 

 cades of red-hot rocks and scoriae. The rain which 

 fell from the cloud-canopy was scalding hot. 



Dr. Clarke was able to compare the different ap- 

 pearances presented by the lava when it burst from 

 the very mouth of the crater, and lower down when it 

 had approached the plain. As it rushed forth from its 

 imprisonment, it streamed a liquid, white, and brilliantly 

 pure river, which burned for itself a smooth channel 

 through a great arched chasm in the side of the moun- 

 tain. It flowed with the clearness of " honey in regular 

 channels, cut finer than art can imitate, and glowing 

 with all the splendor of the sun. Sir William 

 Hamilton had conceived," adds Dr. Clarke, " that 

 stones thrown upon a current of lava would produce 

 no impression. I was soon convinced of the contrary. 

 Light bodies, indeed, of five, ten, and fifteen pounds' 

 weight, made little or no impression, even at the 

 source; but bodies of sixty, seventy, and eighty 

 pounds were seen to form a kind of bed on the surface 

 of the lava, and floated away with it. A stone of three 



