VOL. XLI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 36O 



By all accounts, there has not been any eruption remembered near so violent, 

 nor so furious ; and authors mention none to this degree later than above J 00 

 years since. On Friday, May 17, 1737, N. S. I observed, as far as I could 

 see round, that the mountain was covered with white ashes a great way down, 

 as it has been with snow in the winter. Pliny observes in these words : 

 " Praecesserat per multos dies terraemotus minus formidolosus, qui Campaniae 

 non solum castella, verum etiam oppida vexare solitus." (Plin. lib. vi. ep. 20.) 

 Other authors say the contrary ; though it may very likely be so, round and 

 near the foot of the mountain ; but this time I have not found any body sen- 

 sible of it here ; but it is certainly true, that our windows and doors shook 

 all the time of the violence of the eruption, which I take to be from the very 

 great concussion of the air on the violent explosions. 



On Saturday night. May 18, this great phenomenon began, and increased 

 so much on Sunday, that it brought half the people out to gaze at it. There 

 were certainly, among some, great apprehensions, by their being employed in 

 processions, visiting their churches, and exposing their images of the Virgin 

 Mary. 



I very boldly set out on Monday, about 2 hours before sun- set. It was a 

 melancholy sight, to see the road full of numbers of poor wretches, flying as 

 from Sodom. I stopped on the way, to observe the vast clouds of smoke 

 thrown up in a prodigious column, to an amazing height, which, by its gentle 

 waving and undulation, was a most beautiful sight ; and when it had mounted 

 so high, that it had lost the force of the protrusion, it was carried by the wind 

 a vast way ; but not too far for one to observe how its rolls began to break, 

 and, being dispersed and expanded, covered the country underneath with ashes 

 and darkness. Many great flashes of lightning were darted through this pillar 

 of smoke, and frequent discharges as of cannon or bombs, which were followed 

 by falling stars, such as we see from well-made rockets. We turned off" out of 

 Portici, to gain the north-side of the mountain, as far as we could, in chaises, 

 till we were forced to get upon asses or mules. 



It was now growing dark, and the fire began to be visible, which it was not 

 in the day-time, the sun bearing no rival. 



In a little time, by the light of the mountain, though that was much ob- 

 scured by the clouds and pillar of smoke, and the help of our torches, we 

 scrambled over very rough roads, till we got within about a quarter of a mile of 

 the great lava or current. But then we halted, as the scene on all sides became 

 so stupendous and terrible. 



We returned to Portici, where we supped, and got home, much fatigued, 

 by 2 in the morning. The fury of this eruption was at its height this night, as 



VOL. VIII. 3 B 



