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I have feen It only at a diftance, It appears very 
‘‘ great. The Sunday following, which was the 
“ 6th of October, many people going to fee this 
“ phaenomenon, and fome having afcended half the 
“ mountain, others more, about 22 o’clock there 
“ happened fo fudden and horrid an eruption, with 
“ fo great a fmoke, that many of thefe people were 
“ ftifled, fome of which could never be found. I 
“ have been told, that the number of the dead or 
“ loft amounted to twenty four. From that time 
« to this, nothing remarkable happened j it feems 
“ as if the eruption returned periodically, like 
“ the ague or gout. I believe henceforward it 
“ will not have fuch force, though the eruption 
“ of the Sunday was accompanied with Ihowers 
of afhes and water, which fell at Naples, and 
“ were feen to extend as far as the mountain of 
“ Somma, called Vefuvius by the ancients; and, 
“ as 1 have often remarked, the clouds of fmoke 
proceeding from the eruption, moved in a 
“ direct line towards that mountain, as if thefe 
“ places had a correfpondence and connedlion one 
“ with the other. In the night, many beams and 
“ columns of fire were feen to proceed from this 
eruption, and fome like flafhes of lightening. 
“ We have then, many circumftances for our obfer- 
vation, the earthquakes, the eruption, the drying 
up of the Tea, the quantity of dead fifh and birds, 
“ the birth of fprings, the fhower of allies with 
“ water, and without water, the innumerable trees 
in that whole country, as far as the Grotto of 
“ Lucullus, torn from their roots, thrown down, and 
‘‘ covered with aflies, that it gave one pain to fee 
VoL. LXI. E them: 
