44 A HISTORY OF 



which hindered me from seeing its depth and figure. I heard within 

 that horrid gulf certain extraordinary sounds, which seemed to pro- 

 ceed from the bowels of the mountain ; a sort of murmuring., sighing, 

 dashing sound ; and, between whiles, a noise like that of thunder or 

 cannon, with a clattering like that of tiles falling from the tops 

 of houses into the streets. Sometimes, as the wind changed, the smoke 

 grew thinner, discovering a very ruddy flame, and the circumference 

 of the crater streaked with red and several shades of yellow. Af- 

 ter an hour's stay, the smoke, being moved by the wind, gave us 

 short and partial prospects of the great hollow ; in the flat bottom 

 of which I could discern two furnaces almost contiguous ; that on the 

 left seeming about three yards over, glowing with ruddy flame, and 

 throwing up red-hot stones with a hideous noise, which, as they fell 

 back, caused the clattering already taken notice of. May 8, in the 

 morning, I ascended the top of Vesuvius a second time, and found a 

 different face of things. The smoke ascending upright, gave a full 

 prospect of the crater, which, as I could judge, was about a mile in cir- 

 cumference, and a hundred yards deep. A conical mount had been 

 formed, since my last visit, in the middle of the bottom, which I could 

 see was made by the stones, thrown up and fallen back again into the 

 crater In this new hill remained the two furnaces already mentioned. 

 The one was seen to throw up every three or four minutes, with a dread- 

 ful sound, a vast number of red-hot stones, at least three hundred feet 

 higher than my head, as I stood upon the brink ; but as there was no wind, 

 they fell perpendicularly back from whence they had been discharged. 

 The other was filled with red-hot liquid matter, like that in the fur- 

 nace of a glass-house, raging and working like the waves of the sea, 

 with a short abrupt noise. This matter would sometimes boil over, 

 and run down the side of the conical hill, appearing at first red-hot, 

 but changing colour as it hardened and cooled. Had the wind driven 

 in our faces, we had been in no small danger of stifling by the sul- 

 phureous smoke, or being killed by the masses of melted minerals that 

 were shot from the bottom. But as the wind was favourable, I had 

 an opportunity of surveying this amazing scene for above an hour and 

 a half together. On the fifth of June, after a horrid noise, the moun- 

 tain was seen at Naples to work over; abd about three days after, 

 its thunders were renewed so, that not only the windows in the city, 

 but all the houses, shook. From that time it continued to overflow, 

 and sometimes at night were seen columns of fire shooting upward 

 from its summit. On the tenth, when all was thought to be over, the 

 mountain again renewed its terrors, roaring and raging most violently. 

 One cannot form a juster idea of the noise, in the most violent fits 

 of it, than by imagining a mixed sound made up of the raging of a tem- 

 pest, the murmur of a troubled sea, and the roaring of thunder and 

 artillery confused all together. Though we heard this at the distance 

 of twelve miles, yet it was very terrible. I therefore resolved to ap- 

 proach nearer to the mountain ; and, accordingly, three or four of us 

 got into a boat, and were set ashore at a little town situated at the 

 foot of the mountain. From thence we rode about four or five miles., 

 before we came to the torrent of fire that was descending from th* 

 side of the volcano ; and here the roaring grew exceedingly )<id anil 



