101 
the late Eruption of Mount Vesuvius. 
as usual into the pores of the earth, which were then filled up 
with the fine ashes of a bituminous and oily quality, nor hav- 
ing free access to the channels which usually carried it off, ac- 
cumulated in pools, and mixing with more ashes, rose to a 
great height, and at length forced its way through new chan- 
nels, and came down in torrents over countries where it was 
least expected, and spread itself over the fertile lands at the 
foot of the mountain. From what I have seen lately, I begin to 
doubt very much if the water, by which so much damage was 
done, and so many lives were lost during the terrible eruption 
of Vesuvius in 1631, did really, as was generally supposed, 
come out of the crater of the volcano : sentiments were divided 
then, as they are now, on that subject ; and since in all great 
eruptions the crater of the volcano must be obscured by the 
clouds of ashes, as it probably was then, and certainly was 
during the violence of the late eruption, therefore it must be 
very difficult to ascertain exactly from whence that water came. 
The more extraordinary a circumstance is, the more it appears 
to be the common desire that it should be credited ; from this 
principle, one of his Sicilian Majesty's gardeners of Portici 
went up to the crater of V esuvius as soon as it was practicable, 
and came down in a great fright, declaring that he had seen 
it full of boiling water. The Chevalier Macedonio, intendant 
of Portici, judged very properly, that to put an end to the 
alarm this report had spread over the country, it was neces- 
sary to send up people he could trust, and on whose veracity 
he might depend. Accordingly the next day, which was the 
16th of July, Signor Guiseppe Sacco went up, well attended, 
and proved the gardener's assertion to be absolutely false, there 
being only some little signs of mud from a deposition of the 
