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laro-e plain of sand. The stones and sand which remain wherever this water reached, differ in nothing 
from the stones and sand of the sea, and have even the same saltness. After the water was gone 
there surang from the same opening a small stream of fire, which continued for tour and twenty 
hours. 1 On Tuesday, about a mile below this opening, there arose another stream of fire, which being 
in breadth about four hundred feet, overflowed all the adjacent country. 
On the 3d of December, 1/54 , a stream of liquid fire began to run down the side of Mount 
Vesuvius from an opening on the east-side. But it soon ceased running from this orifice, and burst 
out from a much larger one, about two hundred yards below it. Afterward it burst out from a third 
orifice, and having ran some space with great tury, the surface then began to cool and incrust, as it 
ran over gently declining ground, till it came within about ten yards of the top of a steep declivity. 
Here the fire collected, as in a reservoir, to supply a cascade, which rushed down from thence in a 
channel of more than twenty feet wide, and about two hundred yards in length, with a fall of at least 
fifty feet. After this the stream was less rapid, but grew wider, and spread several miles from its 
source. It now presented a very different scene from what it afforded before. The cascade (says an 
eye-witness) looks like melted gold, and tears off large bodies of old lava (so they term the incrus¬ 
tation) which float down the stream, till the intenseness of the heat lifts them from the bottom. But 
in the lower country, it divides into smaller streams, running with less lapidity. and yet with such 
violence, that it drives the strongest stone fences before it, and lighting the trees, like torches, affords 
a most extraordinary, though dismal spectacle. 
Not to detain the reader too long on these phenomena, I shall only give him the fine description of 
another eye-witness, Kircher, respecting an eruption or Mount flEtna. 
Proceeding onward, says this traveller, I could not fail to cast my eyes on this justly famed moun¬ 
tain, and I saw it cast forth large volumes of smoke, which entirely covered the whole island. This 
together with the dreadful noise, filled me wfith apprehension. The sea itself began to wear a very 
unusual appearance, covered all over with bubbles. My surprise was increased by the calmness of the 
weather. I therefore warned my companions, that an earthquake was approaching, and making for 
the shore wfith all possible speed, we landed at Tropse. But we had scarcely arrived at the Jesuit’s Col¬ 
lege in that city, when our ears were stunned with a horrid sound resembling that of an infinite 
number of chariots driven fiercely forward, the wheels rattling , and the thongs cracking. Soon 
after, the whole tract upon which we stood, seemed to vibrate, as if we were in the scale of a balance 
wavering. This soon grew more violent, and being no longer able to keep my legs, I was thrown 
prostrate upon the ground. In the mean time, the universal ruin round me, redoubled my amaze¬ 
ment. The crash of falling houses, the tottering of towers, and the groans of the dying, all contri¬ 
buted to raise my terror. On every side of me, I saw nothing but a scene of ruin, danger threatening 
wherever I. could fly. I recommended myself to God as my last refuge. At that hour, O how vain 
was every sublunary happiness! Wealth, honour, empire, wisdom, all mere useless sounds, and as 
empty as the bubbles on the deep. Just standing on the threshold of eternity, nothing but GOD was 
my pleasure, and the nearer I approached, 1 only loved him the more. After some time, however, I 
resolved to venture for safety, and running as fast as I could, reached the shore. I did not search 
long, till I found the boat in which I had landed and my companions also. Our meeting was all 
silence, wfith gloomy dread of impending terrors. The place on which we stood, now began to shake 
most dreadfully, so that being unable to stand, my companions and I caught hold of the shrubs near 
us, and suppoited ourselves in that manner. After some time this shock ceasin< r , we stood ud in 
oraci to go to Euphccmia, that lay within sight. But when I turned my eyes towards the city, I could 
see only a daik cloud resting upon the place. Ihis the more surprised us, as the weather was so 
serene. We waited till the cloud was partly away, then looking for the city, it was totally sunk. No¬ 
thing out a putud lake was seen where it stood. vV"e looked about for some one that could tell us the 
sad catasti opht, but could see none. All was become a melanciioly solitude, a scene of hideous deso¬ 
lation. Such was file fate of the city of Euphmmia. And as we continued our melancholy course 
along the snoic, the whole coast for the space ot two hundred miles presented nothing but the remains 
of cities. 
EARTHQUAKE AT LISBON. 
Earthquakes have so great affinity, with the eruptions of volcanos, that, according to our plan, 
we will proceed to the consideration of one of the most memorable, and in the recollection of most 
of US. 
