494 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO ]7y5. 



ex])losion. Had this circumstance, with that of the subterraneous noises heard 

 at Resina for 1 days before the eruption, with the additional one of the decrease 

 of water in the wells, been communicated at the time, it would have required 

 no great foresight to have been certain that an eruption of the volcano was near 

 at hand, and that its force was directed particularly towards that part of the 

 mountain. 



On the l'2th of June, in the morning, there was a violent fall of rain, and 

 soon after the inhabitants of Resina, situated directly over the ancient town of 

 Herculaneum, were sensible of a rumbling subterraneous noise, which was not 

 heard at Naples. About 1 1 o'clock, at night of the 12th of June, at Naples we 

 were all sensible of a violent shock of an earthquake; the undulatory motion 

 was evidently from east to west, and appeared to iiave lasted near half a minute. 

 The sky, which had been quite clear, was soon after covered with black clouds. 

 The inhabitants of the towns and villages, which are very numerous at the foot 

 of Vesuvius, felt this earthquake still more sensibly, and say, that the shock, at 

 first was from the bottom upwards, after which followed the undulation from east 

 to west. This earthquake extended all over the Campagna Felice; and the royal 

 palace at Caserta, which is 15 miles from this city, and one of the most magni- 

 ficent and solid buildings in Europe, ihe walls being 18 feet thick, was shook in 

 such a manner as to cause great alarm, and all the chamber bells rang. It was 

 likewise much felt at Beneventum, about 30 miles from Naples; and at Ariano 

 in Puglia, at a much greater distance; both which towns have been often afflicted 

 with earthquakes. 



On Sunday the 15th of June, soon after 10 at night, another shock of an 

 earthquake was felt at Naples, though not quite so violent as tliat of the 12th, 

 nor did it last so long; at the same moment a fountain of bright fire, attended 

 with a very black smoke and a loud report, was seen to issue, and rise to a great 

 height, from about the middle of the cone of Vesuvius; soon after another of 

 the same kind broke out at some little distance lower down; then it had the ap- 

 pearance as if the lava had taken its course directly up the steep cone of the 

 volcano. Fresh fountains succeeded each other hastily, and all in a direct line, 

 tending, for about a mile and a half down, towards the towns of Resina and 

 Torre del Greco. I could count 15 of them, but I believe there were others ob- 

 scured by the smoke. It seems probable, that all these fountains of fire, from 

 their being in such an exact line, proceeded from one and the same long fissure 

 down the flanks of the mountain, and that the lava and other volcanic matter 

 forced its way out of the widest parts of the crack, and formed there tlie little 

 mountains and craters hereafter described. It is impossible that any description 

 can give an idea of this fiery scene, or of the horrid noises that attended this 

 great operation of nature. It was a mixture of the loudest thunder, with inces- 



