44 Sir william Hamilton’s Account of 
No lefs than nine fuch eruptions are recorded here 
fince the great one abovementioned, and fome of them 
were confiderable. I never failed vifiting thofe lavas 
whilft they were in full force, and as conftantly exa- 
mined them and the crater of the volcano after the 
ceafing of each eruption (i> . 
It would be but a repetition of what has been defcribed 
in my former letters on this fubjetft, were I to relate my 
remarks on thofe different expeditions. The lavas, when 
they either boiled over the crater, or broke out from the 
conical parts of the volcano, conftantly formed channels 
as regular as if they had been cut by art down the fteep 
part of the mountain, and, whilft in a ftate of perfect fu- 
fion, continued their courfe in thofe channels, which 
were fometimes full to the brim, and at other times 
more or lefs fo, according to the quantity of matter in 
motion. 
Thefe channels, upon examination after an eruption, 
I have found to be in general from two to five or fix feet 
(i) The laft vifit to the crater of Vefuvius, which was in the month of 
May, a 7 79, was my fifty-eighth, and to be fure I have been four times as 
often on parts of the mountain, without climbing to its fummit, and after all 
am not afhamed to own, that I comprehend very little of the wonders I have 
feen in this great laboratory of nature ; yet there have been naturalifts of fuch 
a wonderful penetrating genius, as to have thought themfelves fufficiently qua- 
lified to account for every hidden phenomenon of Vefuvius, after having, lite- 
rally fpeaking, given the volcano un toup d'ceil. 
4 wide, 
