56 Sir WILLIAM HAMILTON’S Account of 
a height as to ffrike every one who beheld it with the 
moft awful aftonifhment. I fhall fcarcely he credited 
when I allure you, sir, that, to the bell of my judgment, 
the height of this ftupendous column of fire could not 
be lefs than three times that of Vefuvius itfelf, which, as 
you know', rifes perpendicularly near 3700 feet above 
the level of the fea fh> . 
Puffs of fmoke, as black as can pofiibly be imagined, 
fucceeded one another haftily, and accompanied the red- 
hot, tranfparent, and liquid lava, interrupting its fplen- 
did brightnefs here and there by patches of the darkeft 
hue. Within thefe puffs of fmoke, at the very moment 
of their emiffion from the crater, I could perceive a 
bright, but pale, electrical fire, briskly playing about in 
zig zag lines . 
The wind v'as S. W. ; and though gentle was fufficient 
to carry thefe detached clouds or puffs of fmoke out of 
the column of fire, and a collection of them, by degrees, 
formed a black and extenfive curtain (if I may be al- 
( h ) Se tu fe’ or lettore, a creder lento 
Cio, ch’elodiro, non fara maraviglia; 
Che Io, che 1* vidi ; appena il mi confento. 
dante inf. Cant, xxv. verfo46. 
(i) I mention this circumftance to prove, that the electrical matter, fo mani- 
feft during this eruption, actually proceeded from the bowels of the volcano, 
and was not attracted from a great height in the air, and conducted into its crater 
by the vaft column of fmoke. 
I 
lowed 
