[ 4 ] 
of mount Vefuvius in the time of Titus ; It muft be 
allowed, that wdiatever matter lies between thefe cities 
and the prefent furface of the earth over them, mufl 
have been produced fince the year 79 of the Chriftian 
aera, the date of that formidable eruption. 
Pompeii, which is htuated at a much greater 
diifance from the volcano than Herculaneum, has felt 
the effedls of a fingle eruption only; it is covered 
with white pumice fiones mixed with fragments of 
lava and burnt matter, large and fmall; the pumice 
is very light, but I have found fome of the fragments 
of lava and cinders there, weighing eight pounds. 
I have often wondered that fuch weighty bodies 
could have been carried to fuch a diftance (for Pom- 
peii cannot be lefs than five miles, in a Ifrait line, 
from the mouth of Vefuvius). Every obfervation 
confirms the fall of this horrid flaower over the un- 
fortunate city of Pompeii, and that few of its in- 
habitants had dared to venture out of their houfes; 
for in many of thofe which have been already cleared, 
fkeletons have been found, fome with gold rings, 
ear rings, and bracelets. I have been prefent at the 
difcovery of feveral human fkeletons my felf ; and 
under a vaulted arch, about two years ago, at Pom- 
peii, I law the bones of a man and a horfe taken 
up, with the fragments of the horfe’s furniture, which 
had been ornamented with falfe gems fet in bronze. 
The Ikulls of fome of the fkeletons found in the 
flreets had been evidently fradtured by the fall of the 
hones. His Sicilian majeffy’s excavations are confined 
to this fpot at prefent ; and the curious in antiquity 
may expedt hereafter, from fo rich a mine, ample 
matter for their dilfertations : but I will confine mylelf 
to 
