370 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO l/Sp. 



to burning ; but the next day, Tut'sday, the columns and bouYllons of sinoke 

 were as great, and thrown out with as much violence, which, as the wind sat, 

 carried its destruction, not of the large massy metallic bodies, but of infinite 

 quantities of ashes and cinders, all that day, and part of the night- Through 

 the columns of smoke was a continued lightning, the most beautiful sight 

 imaginable. 



The following day, Wednesday, we set out again, to view the west-side of 

 the mountain at Torre del Greco, 8 miles from hence ; where the great lava 

 had stopped at the church of the Carmelites, but not without carrying part of it 

 away. This lava had, from the declivity, taken the water-course, which was 

 the preservation of the country from being drowned. This hollow, which was 

 for some miles between 30 and 40 feet deep, and as many wide, was not only 

 filled up, but the matter rose as many feet above the surface of the land about 

 it. We walked to view it on one side, but the heat was so intense, and the 

 sulphureous stench so suffocating, that we were obliged to keep at a good 

 distance ; and I was well informed by several, that it continued very hot 4 or 

 5 weeks after ; so long in cooling is that great quantity of bituminous and me- 

 tallic matter, with which this vomes is loaded. 



As the fury of the expulsion and explosion was much abated on Tuesday 

 morning, the stop here was about 4 o'clock that day in the afternoon ; which 

 might be the more easily conceived, when no more of this vast metallic matter 

 was discharged, and the motion of all the rest was relented, for want of more 

 protrusion, and the bitumen growing a little cooler. As this stop was made 

 at the church, part of the lava took a turn into the great large road to Salerno, 

 to a great height ; which part is choaked up for ever, the expence being im- 

 mense to remove it. 



Some persons say, that the matter discharged this time in the different cur- 

 rents or lavas round about, would make a mountain as large as their sire. The 

 Carmelites here soon fled, and were not come back 10 days afterwards, when 

 we returned that way, to visit the south-east side, to view the great devastation 

 which was made about Ottajano, ] 8 miles froui hence ; for though the great 

 discharge of the metallic body ceased on Tuesday, a vast destruction of the 

 country followed for a long time after ; for as the force of the explosion was 

 very great, it continued to throw out vast showers of cinders and ashes. The 

 lands indeed, where the lavas fall, are annihilated to the owners ; and the other 

 materials destroy all the fruit and produce of the earth where they fall, which 

 does not recover for a long time. 



As we turned on the left from Torre del Greco towards Ottajano, we passed 

 all the way through their masserias (farms) ; and the mountain, being to the 



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