C 28 ] 
tion to the phyfical geographer, a conftant famenefs of 
phaenomena occurring every where. Nor have we any 
foundation, from the external appearance of fuch moun- 
tains, to conclude, that all others, that have fuffered fire, 
are of the fame character. We fee nothing but a heap 
of ruins, call up from their bowels, and we are apt to 
imagine, that fuch inordinate materials compofe the in- 
tire mafs ; and analogy, too often feducive in fimilar mat- 
ters, leads us to conclude the fame of other vulcanic 
mountains in general. But I am much inclined to think, 
that the materials thrown up by burning mountains, 
are only lodged fuperficially, as it were, on their fides ; 
and though they may confiderably increafe their bulk, 
as well as alter their form, yet they do not feem to con- 
flitute the intire mafs of thofe mountains, as might be 
reafonably imagined from their external appearance. 
For it has been obferved, both by padre de la torre, 
M. DE LA LANDE<'^>’, and Others, that the inner fides even 
of the funnel of mount Vefuvius preferve manifeft vef- 
tiges of its primary organization, in regular, parallel, and 
nearly horizontal Jirata^ like thofe of other common 
mountains. And does it not appear more than probable 
from hence, that an original mountain lies under the 
lava of Vefuvius, ferving in a manner, as its bafe, and 
which, whatever local alteration it may have received in- 
trinlicaliy, from the fubtle element, that waftes its bow- 
els, hill maintains its primary undifturbed ftru(5ture, like 
the vulcanic mountains of the Veronefe territory be- 
(g) Voyages d’ltalie, tom. VII. p. 169^176. 
fore 
