the late Eruption of Mount Vesuvius. 95 
sixty-eight times on the highest point of Vesuvius. I observed 
in my way through the village of Resina that many of the 
stones of the pavement had been loosened, and were deranged 
by the earthquakes, particularly by that of the 18th, which 
attended the falling in of the crater of the volcano, and which, 
as they told me there, had been so violent as to throw many 
people down, and obliged all the inhabitants of Resina to quit 
their houses hastily, and to which they did not dare return for 
two days. The leaves of all the vines were burnt by the ashes 
that had fallen on them, and many of the vines themselves 
were buried under the ashes, and great branches of the trees 
that supported them had been torn off by their weight. In 
short, nothing but ruin and desolation was to be seen. The 
ashes at the foot of the mountain were about 10 or 12 inches 
thick on the surface of the earth, but in proportion as we as- 
cended their thickness increased to several feet, I dare say 
not less than 9 or 10 in some parts ; so that the surface of the 
old rugged lavas, that before was almost impracticable, was 
now become a perfect plain, over which we walked with the 
greatest ease. The ashes were of a light-grey colour, and ex- 
ceedingly line, so that by the footsteps being marked on them 
as on snow, we learnt that three small parties had been up be- 
fore us. We saw likewise the track of a fox, that appeared to 
have been quite bewildered, to judge from the many turns he 
had made. Even the traces of lizards and other little animals, 
and of insects, were visible on these fine ashes. We ascended to 
the spot from whence the lava of the 15th first issued, and we 
followed the course of it, which was still very hot (although 
covered with such a thick coat of ashes), quite down to the 
sea at Torre del Greco, which is more than five miles. A pair 
