MOUNT VESUVIUS. % 21 



Sir William Hamilton, (an eye witness,) it is unnecessary to quote, 

 because their details, able as they are, would be but a repetition of the 

 younger Pliny, and Dion Cassius, with modern dates. We shall close 

 our article by an able description of the eruption of 1822, from the pen of 

 the writer we have before quoted. 



" The volcano Lad been unusually quiet for several months, without 

 so much as a wreath of smoke proceeding from the great crater, or from 

 any part of it, when suddenly, on a Sunday evening, late in the month 

 of October, two columns of fire were seen to ascend from the summit of 

 the great cone. The quantity of nre was inconsiderable. The burning 

 stones and other ignited matter, seemed all to fall back into the broad 

 crater, from which they were ejected, and there was no appearance that 

 this would be any thing more than one of the frequent minor eruptions 

 that cause neither mischief nor alarm. During the night the eruption 

 continued as it had begun. On Monday the mountain offered only a 

 small column of smoke. When the sun set, and darkness came on, the 

 fire was again visible on the top of the cone, but during the whole of 

 Monday night there was no increase, and on Tuesday morning the 

 volume of smoke was as insignificant as on the preceding day. But 

 about two hours after noon on Tuesday, all at once, a rumbling noise, of 

 terrific loud ness, was heard, and the next instant an immense column of 

 fleecy smoke burst from the great crater, and towered slowly and 

 majestically upward, until it attained an extreme elevation in the atmos- 

 phere, when it spread itself laterally, and for some time continued to 

 present a consistent and defined form, like that of the Italian pine tree. 

 In this it was an exceedingly beautiful object, its form being graceful, 

 and its flaky white color relieved by the deep pure blue of an Italian sky. 

 But soon other throbs and groans of the volcano were heard, smoke of a 

 dark brown color burst from the crater, the head of the gigantic column 

 swelled in size, and spreading in all directions, and becoming darker 

 and darker, soon covered every part of the sky, and lost all shape. By 

 this time alarm had struck not only the population in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of the mountain, but the inhabitants of Naples itself. 



" All thronged to the shores of the bay, or to the hills, or to the outside 

 of the town, to gaze with terrified looks at Vesuvius. But it was not 

 until the fall of night that the scene displayed all its terrors. Then an 

 immense pillar of fire was seen to rise from the cone, and red-hot stones, 

 and disrupted rocks, to ascend with it, and in their descent either to fall 

 back into the crater, or to roll down the outside of the cone with fearful 

 violence and rapidity. To this there was no pause. The pillar of fire 



