the late Eruption of Mount Vesuvius. 99 
nose, mouth, and of every feature perfectly distinct. A similar 
specimen of a mould of this kind, brought from Pompeii, is 
now in his Sicilian Majesty's museum at Portici ; it had been 
formed over the breast of a young woman that had been shut 
up in the volcanic matter ; every fold of a thin drapery that 
covered her breast is exactly represented in this mould : and 
in the volcanic tufo that filled the ancient theatre of Hercu- 
laneum, the exact mould or impression of the face of a marble 
bust is still to be seen, the bust or statue having been long 
since removed. Having observed these fine ashes issuing in 
such abundance from Vesuvius, and having the appearance of 
being damp or wet, as you may perceive by the drawing (Tab. 
VII.) that they do not take such beautiful forms and volutes 
as a fine dry smoke usually does, but appear in harsh and stiff 
little curls, you will not wonder then, that the fate of Hercu- 
laneum and Pompeii should have come again strongly into, my 
mind ; but fortunately the wind sprung up fresh from the sea, 
and the threatening cloud bent gradually from us over the 
mountain of Somma, and involved all that part of the Cam- 
pagna in obscurity and danger. 
To avoid prolixity and repetition, I need only say, that the 
storms of thunder and lightning, attended at times with 
heavy falls of rain and ashes, causing the most destructive 
torrents of water and glutinous mud, mixed with huge stones, 
and trees torn up by the roots, continued more or less to 
afflict the inhabitants on both sides of the volcano until the 
7th of July, when the last torrent destroyed many hundred 
acres of cultivated land, between the towns of Torre del 
Greco and Torre dell' Annunziata. Some of these torrents, 
as I have been credibly assured by eye witnesses, both on the 
