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which were thrown up to an incredible height from some of the new mouths, and one of which hay¬ 
ing been since measured by the Abbe Tata was ten feet high, and thirty-five in circumference, contri¬ 
buted undoubtedly to the concussion of the earth and air, which kept all the houses at Naples for 
several hours in a constant tremor, every door and window shaking and rattling incessantly, and the 
bells ringing. This was an awful moment! The sky, from a bright full moon and star-light, began to 
be obscured; the moon had presently the appearance of being in an eclipse, and soon after was totally 
lost in obscurity. The murmur of the prayers and lamentations of a numerous populace forming 
various processions, and parading in the streets, added to the horror. As the lava did not appear to 
have yet a sufficient vent, and it was now evident that the earthquakes already felt had been occasioned 
by the air and fiery matter confined within the bowels of the mountain, and probably at no small 
depth (considering the extent of those earthquakes) Sir William recommended to the company that 
was with him, who began to be much alarmed, rather to go and view the mountain at some greater 
distance, and in the open air, than to remain in the house, which was on the sea-side, and in the part 
of Naples that is nearest and most exposed to Vesuvius. They accordingly proceeded to Posilipo, and 
viewed the conflagration, now become still more considerable, from the sea-side under the mountain; 
but whether from the eruption having increased, or from the loud reports of the volcanic explosions 
being repeated by the mountain behind them, the noise was much louder, and more alarming than that 
they had heard in their first position. After some time, and which was about two o’clock in the 
morning of the 16th, having observed that the lavas ran in abundance, freely, and with great velocity, 
having made a considerable progress towards Resina, the town which it first threatened, and that the 
fiery vapours which had been confined had now free vent through many parts of a crack of more than 
a mile and a half in length, as was evident from the quantity of inflamed matter and black smoke, 
which continued to issue from the new mouths above-mentioned, without any interruption, our author 
concluded that at Naples all danger from earthquakes, which had been his greatest apprehension, was 
totally removed, and he returned to his former station at St. Lucia at Naples. 
All this time there was not the smallest appearance of fire or smoke from the crater on the summit 
of Vesuvius; but the black smoke and ashes issuing continually from so many new mouths, or craters, 
formed an enormous and dense body of clouds over the whole mountain, and which began to give 
signs of being replete with the electric fluid, by exhibiting flashes of that sort of zig-zag lightning, 
which in the volcanic language of the country is called ferilli, and which is the constant attendant on 
the most violent eruptions. 
Sir William Hamilton proceeds to remark, that during thirty years that he had resided at Naples, 
and in which space of time he had been witness to many eruptions of Vesuvius, of one sort or other, 
he never saw the cloud of smoke so replete with the electric fire, except in the two great eruptions of 
1767, that of 1779, :hk1 during this more formidable one. The electric fire, in the year 1779, that 
played constantly with the enormous black cloud over the crater of Vesuvius, and seldom quitted it, 
was exactly similar to that which is produced, on a small scale, by the conductor of an electrical 
machine communicating with an insulated plate of glass, thinly spread over with metallic filings, &c. 
when the electric matter continues to play over it in zig-zag lines without quitting it. He was not 
sensible of any noise attending that operation in 1779; whereas the discharge of the electrical matter 
from the volcanic clouds during this eruption, and particularly the second and third days, caused explo¬ 
sions like those of the loudest thunder; and indeed the storms raised evidently by the sole power of the 
volcano, resembled in every respect all other thunder-storms; the lightning falling and destroying every 
t mg in its course. The house of the Marquis of Berio at St. Jorio, situate at the foot of Vesuvius, 
during one of these volcanic storms was struck with lightning, which having shattered many doors 
and windows, and damaged the furniture, left for some time a strong smell of sulphur in the rooms 
it passe t rough. Out of these gigantic and volcanic clouds, besides the lightning, both during this 
eruption and that of ,779, the author adds, he had, with many others, seen balls of fire issue? and 
some of a considerable magnitude, which bursting in the air, produced nearly the same effect as that 
rom he air-balloons in fire-works, the electric fire that came out having the appearance of the ser¬ 
pents with which those fire-work balloons are often filled. The day on which Naples was in the 
S shotTll r r d0UdS ’ tW ° SmaU ballS 0f fire > J° ined ^ - “"all link like a 
house and the oftT H * ^ I>0Slllp0; the y se P arated > and one fell in the vineyard above the 
use, and the other in the sea, so close to it that he heard the splash in the water The Abbe Tata 
in is printed account of this eruption, mentions an enormous ball of this kind which flew out of the’ 
