ns Sir William Hamilton's Account of 
Upon the whole, having read every account of the former 
eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, 1 am well convinced that this 
eruption was by far the most violent that has been recorded 
after the two great eruptions of 79 and 1631, which were un- 
doubtedly still more violent and destructive. The same phae- 
nomena attended the last eruption as the two former above 
mentioned, but on a less scale, and without the circumstance 
of the sea having retired from the coast. I remarked more 
than once, whilst I was in my boat, an unusual motion in the 
sea during the late eruption. On the 18th of June I observed, 
and so did my boatman, that although it was a perfect calm, 
the waves suddenly rose and dashed against the shore, causing 
a white foam, but which subsided in a few minutes. On the 
15th, the night of the great eruption, the corks that support the 
nets of the royal tunny fishery at Portici, and which usually 
float upon the surface of the sea, were suddenly drawn under 
water, and remained so for a short space of time, which indi- 
cates, that either there must have been at that time a swell in 
the sea, or a depression or sinking of the earth under it. 
From what we have seen lately here, and from what we 
read of former eruptions of Vesuvius, and of other active vol- 
canoes, their neighbourhood must always be attended with 
danger ; with this consideration, the very numerous popula- 
tion at the foot of Vesuvius is remarkable. From Naples to 
Castel-a-mare, about 15 miles, is so thickly spread with 
houses as to be nearly one continued street, and on the Somma 
side of the volcano, the towns and villages are scarcely a mile 
from one another ; so that for thirty miles, which is the extent 
of the basis of Mount Vesuvius and Somma, the population 
may be perhaps more numerous than that of any spot of a like 
