V 





* 



11 era. 

 * that 



« 



eea 



v 



con. 



*d the 



"suade 



igned, 

 mortals 



' after 



ate of 



)n for 

 xactly 



; troni, 



before 



flcrip- 



reuni- 

 Tvere 



. plain 

 fre- 



rs 



I with 

 bitter 



taste- 

 were 



as 



r 



lies 



eains 





11 



tai^ 



Ch. XXIV.] 



MODERN ERUPTIONS OF VESUVIUS 



610 



Resina, partly built over the ancient site of Herculaneum, 

 was consumed by the fiery torrent. Great floods of mud 

 were as destructive as the lava itself, — no uncommon occur- 

 rence during these catastrophes ; for such is the violence of 

 rains produced by the evolutions of aqueous vapour, that 

 torrents of water descend the cone, and becoming charged 

 with impalpable volcanic dust, and rolling along loose ashes, 

 acquire sufficient consistency to deserve their ordinary appel- 

 lation of ' aqueous lavas. 5 



A brief period of repose ensued, which lasted only until 

 the year 1666, from which time to the present there has been 

 a constant series of eruptions, with rarely an interval of rest 

 exceeding ten years. During these three centuries, no ir- 

 regular volcanic agency has convulsed other points in this 

 district. Brieslak remarked, that such irregular convulsions 

 had occurred in the Bay of Naples in every second century ; 

 as, for example, the eruption of the Solfatara in the twelfth ; 

 of the lava of Arso, in Ischia, in the fourteenth ; and of 



Monte ISTuovo in the sixteenth : but the 



eighteenth 



has 



formed an exception to this rule, and this seems accounted 

 for by the unprecedented number of eruptions of Vesuvius 

 during that period ; whereas, when the new vents opened, 

 there had always been, as we have seen, a long intermittence 

 of activity in the principal volcano. 





OP 



e 



