102 Sir William Hamilton's Account of 
rain water at the bottom of the crater. According to Sacco's 
account, which has been printed at Naples, the crater is of an 
irregular oval form, and, as he supposes (not having been able 
to measure it) of about a mile and an half in circumference ; 
by my eye I should judge it to be more ; the inside, as usual, in 
the shape of an inverted cone, the inner walls of which on the 
eastern side are perpendicular ; but on the western side of the 
crater, which is much lower, the descent was practicable, and 
Sacco with some of his companions actually went down 176 
palms, from which spot, having lowered a cord with a stone 
tied to it, they found the whole depth of the crater to be about 
500 palms. But such observations on the crater of Vesuvius 
are of little consequence, as both its form and apparent depth 
are subject to great alterations from day to day. These cu- 
rious observers certainly ran some risk at that time, since 
which such a quantity of scorige and ashes have been thrown 
up from the crater, and even so lately as the 35th of this 
month, as must have proved fatal to any one within their 
reach. 
The 22d of July, one of the new craters, which is the 
nearest to the town of Torre del Greco, threw up both fire 
and smoke, which circumstance, added to that of the lava's re- 
taining its heat much longer than usual, seems to indicate that 
there may still be some fermentation under that part of the 
volcano. The lava in cooling often cracks, and causes a loud 
explosion, just as the ice does in the Glaciers in Switzerland; 
such reports are frequently heard now at the Torre del Greco ; 
and as some of the in habitants told me, they often see a va- 
pour issue from the body of the lava, and taking fire in air, 
fall like those meteors vulgarly called falling stars. 
