Observations on Mount Vesuvius, Mount Etna, and other volcanos: in a series of letters, addressed to the Royal Society / from the Honourable Sir W. Hamilton ... ; to which are added, explanatory notes by the author, hitherto unpublished.

  • Hamilton, William, Sir, 1730-1803.
Date:
1773
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on Mount Vesuvius, Mount Etna, and other volcanos: in a series of letters, addressed to the Royal Society / from the Honourable Sir W. Hamilton ... ; to which are added, explanatory notes by the author, hitherto unpublished. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    F cinders were thrown up to a confiderabk height, Immediately upon fight pf the lava, 1 left Naples, with a party pf my countrymen, whom I found as impatient as myfelf to fatisfy their curiofity ip exa¬ mining fo curious an operation of nature. I pa(Ted the whole night upon the moun¬ tain ; and obferved that, though the red hot Hones wrere thrown up in much greater number and to a more conliderable height than before the appearance pf the laya, yet the report was much lefs conliderable than fome days before the eruption. The laya ran near a mile in an hour’s time, when the two branches joined in a hollow on the fide of the mountain, without proceeding far¬ ther. I approached the mouth of the Vol¬ cano, as near as I could with prudence; the lava had the appearance of a river of red hot and liquid metal, fuch as we fee in the glafs-hqufes, on which were large float¬ ing cinders, half lighted, and rolling one over another with great precipitation down the fide of the mountain, forming a mod: beautiful