[ 27 ] 
with lefs rapidity j whence, notwithftanding its flow* 
nefs, it drives the ftrongeft ftone fences before it, and 
from lighting the trees, like torches, affords a moft 
extraordinary, though difmal and pitiful, fpedtacle. 
The fecond letter is dated December 14, I7y4, 
and only gives an account of the continuance of this 
eruption. 
The third letter, which bears date the 1 7th of the 
fame December, fays, that Vefuvius increafes his 
glory and defolationj and that the flream of fire men- 
tioned in the firfl: letter is a mere rivulet, when 
compared to a fecond, of which Mr. Jamineau pro- 
pofes to give an account in a fubfequent letter. 
ExtraSi of another Letter from Mr, Jami- 
neau, the Britifh Qonful at Naples, to Sir 
F. H, Eyles Stiles, dated December 21, 
1754- 
I I 
Read Jan. 23, "W* Should wifh to fay fomething of the 
^ main branch of the fiery river, which 
I never faw till two days fince ; but the departure of 
the poft confines me to fay this only, that the leffer, 
which I faw before, is a fmall trout-flream com- 
pared to this, which fets off in a cafcade of a mile’s 
length, and, tliough rather with a lefs declivity, is 
equally rapid, from the greater quantity of matter 
rufhing down it. The breadth was about fixty feet 
at the top 3 but by having melted down an ifland, that 
divided its flream about two hundred yards in the 
E 2 fall, 
