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Cii. XXVI.] FLOOD OF 1755 IN THE VAL DEL BOVE. 



37 



an ano'Ie of between 30° and 35 



f-O 



Near 



c, part of the laya consolidated at an angle of 47""^ tlie stony 

 layer c being there only 2^ feet thick, whereas it has twice 

 that thickness where it is less inclined (viz. at 35°) below. 



com 



ordinary ancient trap-rocks, and has the same specific 



It contains crystals 



them 



of felspar, and a small quantity of olivine. It is divided by 

 a few joints at right angle^ to the cooling surfaces. 



>/ 



Before I allude to the 



o 



uies 



may be well to mention 



record of a great body of w^ater having passed from the 



higher 



mountain 



Val del Bove. 



This occurred in the year 1755. An eruption had taken 

 place at the summit of the volcano, in the month of March 

 a season when the top of the mountain was covered with 



snow. 



The Canon Eecupero, a good observer, and a man of 

 great sagacity, was commissioned by Charles of Bourbon, 

 king of Naples, to report on the nature and cause of the 

 catastrophe. He accordingly visited the Yal del Bove in the 

 month of June, three months after the event, and found that 

 the channel of the recent flood, nearly two miles broad, was 

 still strewed over with sand and fragments of rock to the 

 depth of 34 feet. 



The volume of water in a length of one mile he estimated 

 at 16,000,000 cubic feet, and he says that it ran at the 



rate 

 miles 



minute 



the first twelve 



At the upper end of the Val del Bove, all the pre- 



miles 



in length, and one in breadth, were perfectly levelled up and 



made auite even, and the mai 



were traceable from thence up the great precipice (or Balzo 

 di Trifoglietto), to the Piano del Lago, or highest platform. 



maintains 



affirms 



(some chasms 



more 



presume 



were melted in one 



mstant, which no current of lava could accomplish, it would 



volume 



He came 



