100 volcanoes; earthquakes. 



Portici were split by the mere concussion of the 

 air. The ground of the neighbouring country was 

 covered with ashes to a depth of fifteen or eighteen 

 inches. Before the discharge a cone of slag four 

 hundred feet high stood in the middle of the crater ; 

 this fell in all at once at the beginning of the out- 

 burst, so that the bottom of the crater is now seven 

 hundred and fifty feet lower than its northern 

 border, above which this "cone had before towered 

 more than a hundred feet. 



On the 16th of June, 1794, after the mountain 

 had been quaking and groaning awfully for several 

 days, a vast stream of lava burst from a cleft in its 

 side, and gushed, with a breadth of several miles 

 and a depth of forty feet, over the fruitful and well- 

 cultivated district below it, sweeping away churches, 

 convents, villas, and everything that stood in its 

 course ; it utterly destroyed the rich and flourish- 

 ing towai of Torre del Greco, which at that time 

 held eighteen thousand inhabitants ; and at last 

 poured itself, hissing and roaring, into the sea. 

 The loss of human life was small, for it was easy 

 to flee from the glowing flood as it slowly rolled 

 along. 



From Etna, too, but very lately, in the years 

 1832 and 1842, there were violent outbursts; but 

 for a very long time past the lava has ceased to be 

 poured from the summit of this lofty mountain. 



Streams of lava have never, or but very seldom, 



