MOUNT VESUVIUS.

FROM the earliest colonization of Ital in the until the year 79 of the Christian era. Vestas ofer further indications of a volcanic character the might be inferred, from the similarity

that of other extinct volcanoes, and the ancient lite-tes on its sides. The ancient cone was of a requin ICT Ki a flat summit, on which the remains of a crater a icme day's (nearly filled up,) had left a slight acres sides of the interior were covered with will Valles Lin bottom was a mere barren plain. Or the extent flanks of the mountain consisted of fertile Sells me wan richly cultivated; and at the base were situated tartar with many others, the populous and fourism sne Herculaneum and Pompeii.

The first symptom of revival of the energies was an earthquake, in the year 63 of the Cre which did considerable injury to the res

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from which time, until 79, there were severa

In the month of August of the latter ver Lasse

more numerous and violent; and at lengtL. I TRETMENE eruption showed that the volcanic fire of the real Ana been recalled to the main channel.

The elder Pliny, who held the command of to fleet, stationed at Misenum, a cape or heada the distance westward from the volcano, as the CE in his anxiety to obtain a nearer view of the to fell a victim to the sulphureous vapours Pliny, his nephew, who remained with the he has left us a very lively description of the rail his Letters. He says, that a delist was first seen arising vertically from Testri spreading itself out laterally, so as to re and trunk of the Italian pine-tree. Tur occasionally pierced by flashes of fire an IT: and the whole atmosphere sudden) bezane night. The eruption had cominenset with force, that ashes fell even upon the ship I indeed they fell in such quantities as 11 taum one part of the sea! In the meat time the m terribly; and the sea receiet so far frm te many marine animals were left exposer o t These appearances agree exarty will t more recent volcanic eruptions: paruruari" vius in 1822: indeed, is a times auteurIE – a striking uniformity in Turanit phenomen

It does not appear that in 79 any have fo vius: the ejected substances consister of op. fragments of rock and ancient hardener a erroneous to suppose that Herculaneum an overwhelmed with streams of burung laws. as the excavations have since proves wer showers of ashes. Neither is it true tur s ants were buried alive as they eat in the tre Cassius the historian states; for dunar se tion, comparatively but a few moria res discovered in the theatres, the tempie houses: many lives, no doubt, were se of ashes and other matter being inhabitants generally had sufficient inter The first stream of lava whii Lowe which we have any account, va- E being the seventh volcanic erupling. action. Two other eruptions During the interval of 168 yea the latter period, two minor opened at distant points; sic and that of Campo del eruption of Vesuvius was in 1500. Between the there was a pause ; island or st

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urst out, the old send forth much ; so that the cone welve new craters ntain, and threw out eral estates and farms or forty feet. In 1811, rn side; and discharged zing force.

on the 31st of October, night there suddenly arose, , a column of smoke and st cone, on the northern side; se quantity of fiery and fluid the crater, on the western side, rous burning streams. Next

s or earthquakes, the increased now flowed rapidly, and immense smoke at the foot of Monte Scavo, uption had increased greatly in vioreams of lava now descended. On the contrary to all expectation, the eruption ava was found to be so far cooled, that ous observers were enabled to get upon it, paces. On the 3rd, the hope that the fire xtinct was nearly certain; but, in the evening, ock, followed by several smaller ones, with a tity of smoke, foretold a fresh eruption. About rs before midnight, a severe shock occurred, which ollowed by black smoke, mingled with flames, and thunders became louder and louder every moment. "Having approached," says Signor di Luca, (an eye-wit ness of this dreadful scene,) "as nearly as was prudent, to the hollow from which the fire issued, we found four openRaising our eyes ings, which threw out burning matter. from these openings, we observed a cleft or rent, about a mile in length: from this cleft, volumes of smoke arose from time to time; and, as at the bottom it touched, as it were, the openings just mentioned, it gave us an opportunity of beholding the burning entrails of the volcano, and the great furnace in the interior of the mountain. Meanwhile, the thunder was incessant; and the detonations were often terrible: the lava continued to flow; and enormous masses of burning substances were thrown, without interruption, to a great height, mingled with vast volumes of flame and smoke. The shocks of earthquake likewise were so viole that horses, cattle, and other animals, fled in terror the places where they were feeding."

By the seventh of the month, the lava of the four

The smoke emitted by the smaller mouth was white, and its whole play was inconceivably grand and beautiful: but the other, though less active, was much more terrible; for its detonations were irregular and uncertain, and the thick blackness of its gigantic volumes of smoke partly concealed the fire which it vomited. Both burst, occasionally, at the same instant, and with the most tremendous fury; sometimes mingling their ejected stones, but their It would be expected that the pasty matter thus thrown up would make but little noise in its fall; but this is not the case; the pieces resound like the rolling of the hardest rocks from the summit of a mountain; and the hail of the smaller stones produces the same effect upon the ear as the clatter of the falling roof of a house on fire; sometimes like the crack of thunder, when the lightning has struck some object near at hand.

smoke never.

"If any person could accurately fancy the effect of 500,000 sky-rockets darting up at once to a height of three or four thousand feet, and then falling back in the shape of red balls, shells, and large rocks of fire, he might have an idea of a single explosion of this burning mountain; but it is doubtful whether any imagination is sufficiently exalted to conceive the effect of one hundred of these explosions in the space of five minutes, or of twelve hundred or more in the course of an hour, as we saw them! Yet this was only a part of the sublime spectacle which we had to admire. "On emerging from the darkness, occasioned by the smaller crater being hidden by the large one, as we passed round to the other side of the mountain, we found the whole scene illuminated by the river of lava, which gushed out of the valley formed by the craters and the hill we now stood on. The fiery current was narrow at its source, apparently not more than eighteen inches in breadth; but it quickly widened, and soon divided into two streams, one of which was at least forty feet wide, and the other somewhat less: between them they formed a sort of island; below which they reunited into one broad river, which was at length lost sight of in the deep windings and ravines of the mountain. These rivers of fire, upon which we looked down from the top of a high precipice, the black rocks on the other side of the abyss,-the fantastic shapes, which the dubious light showed in every direction, the horrible gloom of night in every part not illuminated by the lava,-and the tremendous detonations and eruptions, which we could now more clearly hear and see,-were phenomena which I shall never forget! Never can the awful impression of all these elements of terror be effaced from my mind!" BIRTH OF MONTE NUOVO, (NEW MOUNTAIN),

IN THE BAY OF BAIE, NEAR NAPLES. FREQUENT earthquakes disturbed the neighbourhood of Puzzuoli, during two years previous to 1538; but it was not until the 27th and 28th of September, of that year, that they became alarming: no less than twenty shocks were then experienced during twenty-four hours. On the night of the 29th, two hours after sunset, a gulf opened

on the site of Monte Nuovo, and the baths in its suburbs, which were much frequented. A large fissure approached the town with a tremendous noise; discharging pumice-stones, blocks of unmelted lava, and ashes mixed with water, with occasional flames. The ashes fell in immense quantities even at Naples; and the neighbouring town of Puzzuoli became deserted by its inhabitants: The sea retired suddenly for a space of 200 yards, and a portion of its bed was left dry; whilst the whole coast, from Monte Nuovo to beyond Puzzuoli, was elevated many feet above the bed of the Mediterranean; in which situation it has ever since remained. On the 3d of October, the eruption ceased, so that the hill of Monte Nuovo, the great mass of which was thrown up in a day and a night, became accessible.

Monte Nuovo stands partly on the site of the ancient Lucrine Lake, which was itself merely the crater of a preexistent volcano. This lake was almost filled up during the eruption of 1538; and nothing now remains of it except a shallow pool, which is separated from the sea by an elevated artificial mound or beach. The height of Monte Nuovo (that is, New Mountain) has recently been determined to be 440 feet above the level of the Bay of Naples; its base is nearly a mile and a half in circumference; and the depth of the crater is 421 feet from the top, so that its bottom is only nineteen feet higher than the level of the sea.

THE PHLEGREAN FIELDS.

In this celebrated region, which is situated on the Bays of Baia and Naples, are contained Monti Nuovo and Barbaro, Lakes Avernus and Lucrine, the Solfatara, and the town of Puzzuoli.

Monte Nuovo has already been treated of: Monte Barbaro, which is adjacent to, or lies behind, Monte Nuovo, is the Gaurus inanis of Juvenal; an appellation given to it, probably, from its deep circular crater, which is about a mile in diameter. Large as this cone is, it was, no doubt, produced by a single eruption, as was the case with Monte Nuovo. This hill was once very celebrated for its wines, and is still covered with vineyards; but, when the vine is not in leaf, it has a sterile appearance, and contrasts so strongly with the verdure of Monte Nuovo, which is always clothed with arbutus, myrtle, and other wild ever greens, that a stranger would imagine the hill of older date to be that which was thrown up in the sixteenth century.

Avernus, a circular lake near Puzzuoli, about half a mile in diameter, once noted for dangerous vapours like those of volcanic craters after fiery eruptions, is now a healthy spot.

The Solfatara, likewise, near Puzzuoli, which may still be considered a half-extinguished crater, appears from Strabo and others, to have been, before the Christian era, in much the same state as at present; giving vent continually to aqueous vapour, together with sulphureous and muriatic gases, similar to those of Mount Vesuvius; it is also called Lago di Zolfo, or the Lake of Sulphur. A stream of warm water flows continually into it from another lake, situated a few yards above it, but much smaller. The water of this lake is so highly impregnated with carbonic acid gas, that it appears to be actually boiling.

MOUNT ETNA

Is situated in the island of Sicily. It is very nearly 11,000 feet, or upwards of two miles, above the level of the sea; and on a clear day may be distinctly seen from the island of Malta, which is 150 miles off. It is by far the largest burning mountain in Europe; and, from its sides, other mountains arise, which have, in different ages, been thrown out in single masses.

The most extensive lavas of Vesuvius do not exceed seven miles in length; whilst those of Etna extend to fifteen, twenty, and sometimes even thirty miles: the crater is seldom less than a mile in circuit, and is sometimes two or three miles.

A journey up the sides of Etna is generally considered an enterprise of importance; not only from the difficulty of the route, but on account of the distance, which is thirty miles from the city of Catania to the summit. Its gigantic bulk, its sublime elevation, and the extensive, varied, and grand prospects which are presented from its top, have, however, induced the curious, in every age, to ascend and examine it. It has been divided into three distinct regions. The cultivated region, which extends twelve miles upwards from the base, contains beautiful pastures, vines, and fruittrees in abundance, besides towns, villages, and monasteries. The woody or temperate region is mild and pleasant; its turf is covered with aromatic plants, and the gulfs which formerly threw out torrents of fire, are now changed into woody valleys: the chesnut and the oak grow here to a prodigious size. The last, or desert region, commences about a mile from the summit; the lower part is covered with snow during the winter only; but the upper part is clothed with this fleecy garment all the year.

The cone is described by Sir W. Hamilton, and others, as a little steep mountain, about a quarter of a mile high, situated in the centre of a gently-inclined plane of about nine miles in circumference. The crater is of an oval shape, having its edges greatly indented by the projection and falling back of the lava and rocks: the bottom, like that of Vesuvius and other volcanoes, is a plain, about two thirds of a mile round; from which a column of smoke constantly issues. Within an opening in the side, may be clearly seen the liquid burning matter constantly boiling and waving, without spreading over the bottom.

Eruptions are recorded by Diodorus Siculus, to have taken place from this volcano, before the Trojan war. In the eruption of 1669, the torrent of burning lava inundated a space of fourteen miles in length, and four in breadth; burying beneath it 5000 villas and other habitations, with part of the city of Catania, and at length falling into the sea:

during several months before the lava burst out, the old mouth, or great crater, was observed to send forth much smoke and flame, and the top fell in; so that the cone became much lowered. In 1809, twelve new craters opened, about half way down the mountain, and threw out rivers of burning lava, by which several estates and farms were covered to the depth of thirty or forty feet. In 1811, several mouths opened on the eastern side; and discharged torrents of burning lava with amazing force.

The last eruption of Etna was on the 31st of October, 1832. About the middle of the night there suddenly arose, without any previous indication, a column of smoke and flame from the base of the last cone, on the northern side; and, shortly after, an immense quantity of fiery and fluid matter was discharged from the crater, on the western side, dividing itself into numerous burning streams. Next morning, repeated shocks or earthquakes, the increased noise of the lava which now flowed rapidly, and immense volumes of thick black smoke at the foot of Monte Scavo, announced that the eruption had increased greatly in violence, and several streams of lava now descended. On the 2nd of November, contrary to all expectation, the eruption ceased, and the lava was found to be so far cooled, that several adventurous observers were enabled to get upon it, and walk a few paces. On the 3rd, the hope that the fire was almost extinct was nearly certain; but, in the evening, a violent shock, followed by several smaller ones, with a fresh quantity of smoke, foretold a fresh eruption. About two hours before midnight, a severe shock occurred, which was followed by black smoke, mingled with flames, and the thunders became louder and louder every moment.

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'Having approached," says Signor di Luca, (an eye-wit ness of this dreadful scene,) "as nearly as was prudent, to the hollow from which the fire issued, we found four openings, which threw out burning matter. Raising our eyes from these openings, we observed a cleft or rent, about a mile in length: from this cleft, volumes of smoke arose from time to time; and, as at the bottom it touched, as it were, the openings just mentioned, it gave us an opportunity of beholding the burning entrails of the volcano, and the great furnace in the interior of the mountain. Meanwhile, the thunder was incessant; and the detonations were often terrible: the lava continued to flow; and enormous masses of burning substances were thrown, without interruption, to a great height, mingled with vast volumes of flame and smoke. The shocks of earthquake likewise were so violent, that horses, cattle, and other animals, fled in terror from the places where they were feeding."

By the seventh of the month, the lava of the four mouths

had traversed a distance of three miles: up to this period, no fear had arisen in the minds of the inhabitants of Bronte, because the places hitherto occupied by the lava, were desert and barren; but it now took a direction among the vineyards, and consequently threatened Bronte itself; although, indeed, the fiery cataract was still six miles distant.

On the 12th, the current being enlarged by the continued accession of fresh matter, rushed with great violence towards La Musa, a fertile district of vineyards and orchards, belonging to the inhabitants of Bronte. On the 13th, it covered the whole, annihilating the expense and labour of many ages, and leaving, in the place of trees, and shrubs, and plants, immense masses of black lava and cinders! After spreading widely over the level ground to the extent of a mile, this enormous fiery current divided into two arms; one of which, about two hundred yards in breadth, approached the walls of Bronte. The terrors of the inhabitants, which were now greatly increased, continued to be further excited on the 14th, 15th, and 16th; for, the burning stream had now approached within a mile and a half of their habitations! On the 17th, however, this

arm fortunately began to diminish, whilst the other increased: the inhabitants, therefore, took courage, and, by the advice of an able architect, began to erect solid bastions or walls of stone, at San Antonio il Vecchio; as well as to clear a way for the enlarged current, through the high ground, into the valley of Salice. All persons, from Prince Maganelti, governor of the province, downwards, including the clergy and magistrates, assisted in this necessary work.

In consequence of the direction taken by the lava, as well as of the precautions adopted, the country round Bronte was relieved from imminent danger; still, preparations were made, in case of any unforeseen change, that the people might be able to flee, and abandon as little of their property to the devouring element as possible. Since the 18th of November, Etna has, on its eastern or opposite side, continued to emit immense volumes of smoke, sand, and water, from nine new mouths, which have opened in that direction.

LIPARI.

THIS island, from which the neighbouring cluster of islands takes its name, is well deserving of notice on account of its celebrated stoves; which, however, are the only vestiges of subterraneous conflagration now remaining. These consist of five caverns or grottoes, two of which have been abandoned on account of their intense heat. In these, the air is suffocating, and the stones are so hot that they cannot be touched: the others are comparatively cool, and form a comfortable retreat to the visitor. From a fissure or crack in the floor of one of the hottest stoves, a thin stream of sulphureous vapour issues from time to time; indicating that the fire beneath is merely dormant.

The epoch at which the fires of Lipari became extinguished, or rather the period at which the eruptions ceased, cannot be exactly fixed. Dolomieu reckons the last eruption to be as old as the sixth century; and he conjectures

that they ceased as soon as the fires found new vents in the neighbouring islands of VULCANO and STROMBOLI; for he has no doubt that the three islands have a submarine communication. Of this the inhabitants of Lipari are so well convinced, that they are in the greatest agitation whenever VULCANO ceases to smoke, or when its passages or vents, are obstructed: they then fear earthquakes; and are apprehensive that the fires may again burst forth in their own island. VULCANO.

FROM this mountain, the generic term, volcano, seems to have derived its origin; and it was the superstitious belief of the ancient inhabitants that Vulcan had here erected those furnaces in which he forged the thunderbolts of Jove. This mountain, which is in the form of a truncated cone, or a cone deprived of its pointed top, is merely a case, opening and exposing to view a second and more perfect cone within; in which the crater or mouth of the volcano three sides, by the ancient cone; being open only on that is situated: the latter is thus wrapped round, at least on side which is washed by the sea.

The base of the inner cone is separated from the steep sides of the outer one, by a circular valley; which terminates on one side, by the junction of the two mountains, and on the other sinks into the sea: in this valley, light pumicestones are mixed with fragments of black and glossy lava, and buried in ashes perfectly white. A blow from a hammer on these stones produces a loud and hollow sound, which re-echoes in the caverns below; proving that the surface is merely the arch or vault of an immense abyss, beneath the traveller's feet.

Its eruptions have been most considerable during the earthquakes which desolated Sicily and a great part of Italy. In March, 1786, after subterraneous thunders and roarings which were heard all over the Lipari Islands, to the great terror of the inhabitants, and which were accom

panied by frequent concussions; the crater threw out a prodigious quantity of sand, mixed with immense volumes of fire and smoke. This eruption continued during fifteen days; and so great was the quantity of sand ejected, that the surrounding places were covered with it to a considerable height; besides much more which fell into the sea. Lava did not flow on this occasion; indeed such a current has not flowed within the memory of man.

STROMBOLI.

CAPTAIN SMYTH, of the Royal Navy, gives some highly interesting particulars of Stromboli, which is the principal of the LIPARI ISLES, the whole of which contain volcanoes, and appear to have risen from the sea. He describes it as a conical mountain, upwards of two thousand feet high, about nine miles in circumference, and, from every indication, a monstrous product of subterranean fire. Its inhabit ants consist of about 1200 contented and sturdy peasants its soil is of black mould, extremely fertile; and from the vines of its produce some of the finest wines in the Mediter

ranean are made.

"I was once," says Captain Smyth, " going ove in my