Description of Vesuvius - Hecla - Etna,

------------The fluid lake that works below,

Bitumen, sulphur, salt, and iron scum, Heaves up its boiling tide. The lab'ring mount Is torn with agonizing throes. At once, Forth from its side disparted, blazing, pours A mighty river, burning in prone waves, That glimmer thro' the night, to yonder plain. Divided there, a hundred torrent streams, Each ploughing up its bed, roll dreadful on, Resistless. Villages, and woods, and rocks, Fall flat before their sweep. The region round, Where myrtle walks, and groves of golden fruit Rose fair, where harvest wav'd in all its pride, And where the vineyard spread its purple store, Maturing into nectar, - now despoil'd Of herb, leaf, fruit, and flow'r, from end to end Lies buried under fire, a glowing sea! Mallet.

Vesuvius, - is a celebrated volcano of Italy, six miles east of Naples. This mountain has two tops; one only of which goes by the name of Vesuvius, the other being now called Somma; but Sir William Hamilton is of opinion, that the latter is what the ancients called Vesuvius.

The perpendicular height of Vesuvius is only three thousand seven hundred feet, though the ascent from the foot to the top is three Italian miles. One side of the mountain is well cultivated and fertile, producing great plenty of vines ; but the south and west sides are entirely covered with cinders and ashes, while a sulphureous smoke constantly issues from the top, sometimes attended with the most violent explosions of stones, the emission of great streams of lava, and all the other attendants of a most formidable volcano.

The first eruption recorded in history, took place in the year 79; at which time the two cities of Pompeii and Hercu-laneum were entirely buried under the stones and ashes thrown out. Incredible mischief was also done to the neighbouring country, and numbers of people lost their lives, among whom was Pliny the elder. It is the opinion of the best judges, however, that this eruption was by no means the first that had ever happened: the very streets of those cities which were at that time overwhelmed, are unquestionably paved with lava. Since that time thirty different eruptions nave been recorded, some of which have been extremely violent. In 1538, a mountain three miles in circumference, and a quarter of a mile in perpendicular height, was thrown up in the course of one night.

In 1766, Sir William Hamilton began to observe the phenomena of this mountain ; and since that time the public nave been favoured with more exact and authentic accounts of the various changes which have taken place in Vesuvius, than were to be obtained before. The first great eruption taken notice of by this gentleman was that of 1769, when Vesuvius never ceased for ten years to send forth smoke, nor were there many months in which it did not throw out stones, ml * acoriae, and cinders, which increasing to a certain degree, were usually followed by lava; so that from the year 1767 to 1769 there were nine eruptions, some of which were very considerable.

In the month of August that year, an eruption took place, which, for its extraordinary and terrible appearance, may be reckoned among the most remarkable of any recorded concerning this or any other volcano. During the whole of July, the mountain continued in a state of fermentation. Subterraneous explosions and rumbling noises were heard; quantities of smoke were thrown up with great violence, sometimes with red-hot stones, scoriae, and ashes; and towards the end of the month, these symptoms increased to such a degree, as to exhibit, in the night, the most beautiful fireworks.

On Thursday the fifth of August, the volcano appeared most violently agitated: a white and sulphureous smoke issued with unceasing impetuosity from its crater, one puff seeming to impel another; so that a mass of vapour was soon accumulated, to all appearance, four times the height and size of the volcano itself. These clouds of smoke were exceedingly white, resembling an immense accumulation of bales of the whitest cotton. In the midst of this very white smoke, vast quantities of stones, scoriae, and ashes, were thrown up to the height of two thousand feet; and a quantity of liquid lava, seemingly very heavy, was lifted up just high enough to clear the rim of the crater, and take its way down the sides of the mountain. This lava, having run violently for some hours, suddenly ceased, just before it had reached the cultivated parts of the mountain, near four miles from the spot whence it issued.

The heat, all this day, was intolerable at the towns of Somma and Ottaiano; and was sensibly felt at Palma and Lauri, which are much farther off. Reddish ashes fell so thick on the two former, that the air was darkened to such a degree, that objects could not be distinguished at the distance of ten feet. Long filaments of a vitrified matter, like spun-glass, were mixed, and fell with these ashes ; several birds in cages were suffocated; and the leaves of the trees in the neighbourhood of Somma were covered with white and very corrosive salt. About twelve at night, on the seventh, the fermentation of the mountain seemed greatly to increase. Our author was watching the motions of the volcano from the mole at Naples, which has a full view of it. Several awfully fine and picturesque effects had been observed from the reflection of the deep red fire within the crater of Vesuvius, and which mounted high amongst those huge clouds on the top of it, when a summer storm, called in that country a tropea, came on suddenly, and blended its heavy watery clouds with the sulphureous and mineral ones, which were already, like so many other mountains, piled up on the top of the volcano. At this moment a fountain of fire was shot up to an in credible height, casting so bright a light, that the smallest objects were clearly distinguishable at any place within six miles or more of Vesuvius. The black stormy clouds, pass-ing swiftly over, and at times covering the whole or part of the bright column of fire, at other times clearing away and giving a full view of it, with the various tints produced by its reverberated light on the white clouds above, in contrast with the pale flashes of forked lightning that attended the tropea, formed such a scene as no combination of language can express. One of the king's gamekeepers, who was out in the fields near Ottaiano while this storm was at its height, was surprised to find the drops of rain scald his face and hands ; a.