fubje<^l their ftiidy have, without fcruple, undertaken 
at once, to write the natural hifiory of a whole pro- 
vince, or of an entire conuncnt ; not refiedling, that 
the longed; life of man fcarcely affords him time to 
give a perfed; one of the fmalleft infeft. 
I a/n ieniible of what I undertake in civine you. 
Sir, even a very imperfedt account of the nature of 
tlac foil of a little tuore than twenty miles rouuvl 
Naples: yet I flatter mvftlf that my remarks, fuch 
as they are, may be of fome ufe to any one here- 
after, who may have leifure and inclination to follow 
them up. The kingdom of the Two Sicilies offers 
certainly the faired; field for obfervations of this kind, 
of any in the whole world ; here are volcanos exift- 
ing in their full force, fome on their decline, and 
others totally extindl. 
To begin with fome degree of order, v^rhich is 
really difficult in the variety of matter that occurs to 
my mind, I will drd; mention the bads on which I 
found all my conjedlures. It is the nature of the 
foil that covers the antient towns of Herculaneum 
and Pompeii, and the interior and exterior form of 
the new mountain, near Puzzole, with the fort of 
materials of which it is compofed. It cannot be de- 
nied that Herculaneum and Pompeii flood once 
above ground ; though now, the former is in no part 
lefs than feventy feet, and in fome parts one hundred 
and twelve feet, below the prefent furface of the 
earth ; and the latter is buried ten or twelve feet 
deep, more or lefs. As we know from the very 
accurate account given by Pliny the younger, to Ta- 
citus, and from the accounts of other contemporary- 
authors, that thefe towns were buried by an eruption 
B 2 of 
