[ 39 ] 
VIII. An Account of an Eruption of Mount 
Vefuvius : In a Letter to Philip Carteret 
Webb, Efq\ F. R. S. from Sir Francis 
Hafkins Eyles Stiles, Bart . F. R. S, 
Dear Sir, Naples, 23d Dec. 1760. 
Read Jan. 29, "IT Did not intend to have paid my re- 
1 7 6l ‘ fpedts to you, till I had better leifure; 
but a hidden eruption of Vefuvius this day prompts 
me to give you a few lines by this poll. The moun- 
tain, which was quiet in the morning, with fcarce 
any vifible fmoke, threw up on a hidden, about noon, 
a vaft column of black fmoke, which rofe to a very 
eonhderable height ;■ and, before it had diffufed itfelf, 
made a fplendid and glorious appearance, as the fun, 
which was then fhining, gilded the fuperior part of 
It j but foon after, it difperfed, and covered all the 
mountain, and a great portion of the Iky in that 
quarter. The afhes, that fell from it, refembled the 
falling of a heavy fhower, feen at a diftance, and 
mull have done great mifchief, if any living thing 
was under them, as is but too probable. The drift 
of the ftorm, if I may call it fo, was towards the 
fouth-eaft, the wind being, I believe, nearly north- 
weft. Portici might be within its influence ; but the 
body of the fmoke feemed to go beyond it; 1 mean, 
that it pafled on the fouth-eaft fide of it, which is 
beyond it, reckoning from Naples. At the fame time 
that this fmoke broke out, we obferved two large 
columns of fmoke ariftng at the foot of the mountain, 
©n the fouth-eaft fide gf it which befpoke eruptions 
in 
