104 J. W. Judd — On Volcanos. 



land on it ; the volcano appears at this time to have lapsed into a 

 state of quietness, for he compares it to the Solfatara of Naples, and 

 his artist, Signor Fabris, gives a drawing, in which clouds of vapour 

 are represented as steadily rising from it. in much the same manner 

 as at the present day. Brydone assures us that in 1770, when he 

 watched the island for a whole night, neither Vulcano nor Vulcanello 

 emitted any glow of light, but only threw out volumes of white 

 " smoke." 



In 1771, according to Deville, and again in 1775, as recorded by 

 Dolomieu, great eruptions of Vulcano took place. During the latter 

 the great stream of obsidian on the north side of the cone is said to 

 have been produced. Spallanzani, it is true, has thrown doubt on 

 this statement of Dolomieu, on the ground that he could obtain no 

 confirmation of the fact from the inhabitants of Lipari ; it must be 

 remembered, however, that Dolomieu visited Vulcano only six years 

 after the eruption took place, while Spallanzani was not there till 

 seven years later. 



It seems to me extremely probable that the filling up of the crater, 

 which had made so much progress at the time of M. de Luc's visit 

 in 1757, had probably continued till 1775, when the liquid lava was 

 able to overflow the crater-rim. Dolomieu's observations on the 

 state of the crater in 1781 seem to be quite in accord with this view. 

 The sides were then so steep that he was unable to enter the crater, 

 but by means of a telescope he could distinguish two small pools, 

 into which large stones slowly sank when rolled from the edge of 

 the crater. That these were full of incandescent lava is proved by a 

 fact that Dolomieu records, namely, that the vapours of Vulcano 

 were by night resplendent with placidflam.es (evidently the reflected 

 glow of a surface of lava like that of Stromboli) that rose above 

 the mountain and diffused their light to some distance. 



The great Calabrian earthquake of 1783, which was violently felt 

 in all the Lipari islands, does not appear to have been attended by 

 any change in the condition of Vulcano. But in March, 1786, 

 according to the unanimous testimony of all the islanders, as care- 

 fully collected by Spallanzani only two years afterwards, a most 

 violent eruption took place. At first a series of subterranean 

 thunderings and roarings were heard over the whole of the islands, 

 but accompanied in Vulcano by frequent concussions and violent 

 shocks. Then the crater threw out a prodigious quantity of sand 

 mixed with immense volumes of smoke and "fire" (incandescent 

 matter). This eruption continued for fifteen days, and so great was 

 the quantity of sand ejected, that the circumjacent places were 

 entirely covered with it to a considerable depth. This eruption in 

 its characters and effects may be justly compared with the Vesuvian 

 outburst of 1822, which was witnessed by Mr. Scrope and so 

 graphically described by him. 



Two years after this great outburst of Vulcano, Spallanzani, to' 

 whose intelligent observations on this and other volcanos geologists 

 are so greatly indebted, visited the island. Such was the terror 

 inspired by the recent eruption, that he could not induce any 



