<R> LETTER IV. 



and the lava ejected in such abundance, that it may 

 be dug up ev: n to the depth of more than sixty feet. 

 'At about that depth a marble pavement has been 

 found with the vestiges of an anciewt town, wh : 

 formerly been buried under thisthii lav;i. 



New mouths of lire have been formed in this moun- 

 tain, A. D. lGi;0, 1669, and at several other times. 

 The flame and ;-:tioke of this volcano lr.v.'e been 

 at Malta, which is almost an hundred and ninety 

 miles distant. In 1537 there was a most tremendous 

 eruption of Mount Etna, with dreadful earthquakes, 

 during the space of twelve days, which overthrew 

 ,a great number of buildings. The cinders ejected at 

 that time from the vulcano were carried as far as 

 Italy by the violence of the explosion. 



The most dreadful eruption of Mount Vesuvius, of 

 which we have any authentic information, happened 

 in the reign of the Emperor Titus about A. JD. 79. 

 Of this Pliny gives a very circumstantial account. 

 One of the last great eruptions of this mountain hap- 

 pened A. D. 1737. It vomited, by several mouths, 

 prodigious torrents of lava, which spread itself over 

 the country until it reached the sea. The breadth of 

 one of those rivers of fire was not less than between 

 sixty and seventy feet, and the matter resembled the 

 scum that issues from the furnace of a forge. The 

 ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculanemn were 

 buried under the lava in the great eruption of this 

 mountain, which happened in the time of Pliny, and 

 were not discovered until the last century. There 

 have been many eruptions in the latter part of the 

 last century, some of which were accurately observ- 

 ed, and have been circumstantially described by Sir 

 W. Hamilton. 



The last considerable erupti-on of Vesuvius happened 

 in the night of the 13th of June, A. D. 1794. It was 

 preceded by earthquakes. The mountain at first open- 

 ened in two places; ;md from the txvo apertures issued 

 immense columns of black smoke, mixed with Liquid 

 burning matter : more mouths \vere afterwards opened^ 

 from all of which proceeded explosions louder than 



