io8 Sir William Hamilton's Account of 
they were agitated by a gentle wind. It is extraordinary, 
that although there does not appear to be any poisonous qua- 
lity in this vapour, which in every respect resembles fixed 
air, it should prove so very fatal to the vineyards, some thou- 
sand acres of which have been destroyed by it since the late 
eruption ; when it penetrates to the roots of the vines, it 
dries them up, and kills the plant. A peasant in the neigh- 
bourhood of Resina having suffered by the mofete, which 
destroyed his vineyards in the year 1 767, and having ob- 
served then that the vapour followed the laws of all fluids, 
made a narrow deep ditch all round his vineyard, which com- 
municated with ancient lavas, and also to a deep cavern under 
one of them ; the consequence of his well reasoned opera- 
tion has been, that although surrounded at present by these 
noxious vapours, and which lie constantly at the bottom of his 
ditch, they have never entered his vineyard, and his vines are 
now in a flourishing state, whilst those of his neighbours are 
perishing. Upwards of thirteen hundred hares, and man}'’ 
pheasants and partridges, overtaken by this vapour, have been 
found dead within his Sicilian Majesty's reserved chases in 
the neighbourhood of Vesuvius ; and also many domestic cats, 
who in their pursuit after this game fell victims to the mofete. 
A few days ago a shoal of fish, of several hundred weight, hav- 
ing been observed by some fishermen at Resina in great agita- 
tion on the surface of the sea, near some rocks of an ancient 
lava that had run into the sea, they surrounded them with 
their nets, and took them all with ease, and afterwards disco- 
vered that they had been stunned by the mephitic vapour, 
which at that time issued forcibly from underneath the ancient 
lava into the sea. I have been assured by many fishermen. 
