ARTIFICIAL 1 RAINS. 503 



short time, many columns of smoke shoot up with the most 

 terrible noise I ever heard, and, bending over the sea, came 

 near our boat, which was four miles or more from the place 

 of their birth ; and the quantity of ashes, stones and smoke 

 seemed as if they would cover the whole earth and sea. 

 Stones, great and small, and ashes, more or less, according 

 to the impulse of the fiery exhalations, began to fall so that 

 a great part of this country was covered with ashes and many 

 that have seen it say they reached the vale of Diana, and 

 some parts of Calabria, which are more than one hundred 

 and fifty miles from Pozzuolo. On Friday and Saturday 

 nothing but a little smoke appeared, so that many taking 

 courage went upon the spot, and say that with the stones 

 and ashes thrown up, a mountain has been formed in that 

 valley not less than three miles in circumference, and al- 

 most as high as the Monte Barbaro, which is near it, cover- 

 ing the Cenattaria, the castle of Trepergule, all those build- 

 ings and the greatest part of the baths that were about 

 them ; extending south towards the sea, north as far as the 

 lake of Avernus, west to the Sudatory, and joining east to 

 the foot of the Monte Barbaro ; so that this place has chang- 

 ed its form and face in such a manner as not to be known 

 again, a thing almost incredible to those who have not seen 

 it ; that in so short a time so considerable a mountain could 

 have been formed. On its summits there is a mouth in the 

 form of a cup, which may be a quarter of a mile in circum- 

 ference, though some say it is as large as our market place 

 at Naples, from which there issues a constant smoke; and 

 though I have seen it only at a distance, it appears very 

 great. The Sunday following, which was the 6th October, 

 many people going to see this phenomenon, and some 

 having ascended half the mountain, others more, about two 

 o'clock, there happened so sudden and horrid an eruption, 

 with so great a smoke, that many of the people were stifled, 

 some of which could never be found. I have been told that 

 the number of dead and lost amounted to twenty-four. 



