'70 Sir WILLIAM HAMILTON’S Account of 
large fcoria x fome of which f cor ice were of the diameter 
of feven or eight feet, and rauft have weighed more than 
an hundred pounds before they were broken by their 
fall, as fome of the fragments of them, which I picked 
up in the ftreets, ftill weighed upwards of fixty pounds. 
When thefe large vitrified maffes either ftruck againft 
one another in the air, or fell on the ground, they broke 
in many pieces, and covered a large fpace around them 
with vivid fparks of fire, which communicated their heat 
to every thing that was combuftible (r> . In an inftant the 
town, and country about it, was on fire in many parts; 
for in the vineyards there w ere feveral ftraw huts, which 
had been erected for the watchmen of the grapes, all of 
which were burnt. A great magazine of wood in the 
heart of the town was all in a blaze, and, had there been 
much wind, the flames rauft have fpread univerfally, and 
all the inhabitants would have infallibly been burnt in 
their houfes, for it was itnpoflible for them to ftir out. 
Some who attempted it with pillows, tables, chairs, the 
tops of wdne calks, See. on their heads, were either 
knocked down, or foon driven back to their clofe quarters 
under arches, and in the cellars of their houfes. Many 
(r) Thefe maiTes were formed of the liquid lava, the exterior parts of which 
had become black and porous by cooling in the long traverfe they had made 
through the air, whilft the interior parts, lefs expofed, retained an extreme heat, 
and were perfe&ly red. 
were 
