97 
the late Eruption of Mount Vesuvius. 
such a suffocating quality. We found in one a double crater, 
like two funnels joined together ; and in all there was some 
little smoke and depositions of salts and sulphurs, of the va- 
rious colours above mentioned, just as is commonly seen ad- 
hering to the inner walls of the principal crater of Vesuvius. 
Two or three days after we had been here, one of the new 
mouths into which we had looked, suddenly made a great 
explosion of stones, smoke, and ashes, which would certainly 
have proved fatal to any one who might unfortunately have 
been there at the time of the explosion. We read of a like acci- 
dent having proved fatal to more than twenty people, who had 
the curiosity to look into the crater "of the Monte Nuovo, near 
Pozzuoli, a few days after its formation, in the year 1538. The 
15th of August, I saw a sudden explosion of smoke and ashes, 
.thrown to an extreme height out of the great crater of Vesu- 
vius, that must have destroyed any one within half a mile of 
it ; and yet on the 19th of July a party not only had visited 
that crater, but had descended 170 feet within it. Whilst we- 
were on the mountain, two whirlwinds, exactly like those that 
form water-spouts at sea, made their appearance ; and one of 
them that was very near us made a strange rushing noise, and 
having taken up a great quantity of the fine ashes, formed 
them into an elevated spiral column, which, with a whirling 
motion and great rapidity, was carried towards the mountain 
of Somma, where it broke and was dispersed. As there were 
evident signs of an abundance of electricity in the air at this 
time, I have no doubt of this having been also an electrical 
operation. One of my servants, employed in collecting of sul- 
phur, or sal ammoniac, which crystallizes near the fumaroli, 
as they are called here (and which are the spots from whence. 
mdccxcv. Q 
