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 / To which are added, explanatory notes by the author, hitherto unpublished.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:
1774
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 / To which are added, explanatory notes by the author, hitherto unpublished.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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    t beautiful and uncommon cafcade ; the co- Jor of the fire was much paler and more bright the firft night -than the fubiequent nights, when it became of a deep red, pro¬ bably owing to its having been more im¬ pregnated with fulphur at firft than af¬ terwards. In the day-time, unlefs you are quite clofe, the lava has no appearance of fire; but a thick white fmoke marks its courie. The :29th, the mountain was very quiet, and the lava did not continue. The 30th, it began to flow again in the fame di¬ rection, whilft the mouth of the Volcano threw up every minute a girandole of red hot ftones, to an immenfe height* The 3 ift, I paffed the night upon the moun¬ tain : the lava, was not fo confiderable as the .firft night; but the red hot ftones were perfectly tranfparent, feme of which, I dare fay of a ton weight, mounted at ieaft two hundred feet perpendicular, and fell in, or near, the mouth of a little moun¬ tain, that was now formed by the quantity*