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 ; to which are added, explanatory notes by the author, hitherto unpublished.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 ; to which are added, explanatory notes by the author, hitherto unpublished.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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    tain had opened a mouth, without noile, about a hundred yards lower than the an¬ cient crater, on the fide towards the Monte di Somma; and I plainly perceived, by a white fmoak, which always accompanies the lava, that it had forced its way out: as foon as it had vent, the fmoak no lon¬ ger came out with that violence from the top. As I imagined that there would be no danger in approaching the moun¬ tain when the lava had vent, I \&ent up immediately, accompanied by one peafant only. I pahed the hermitage (3. in Plate I.), and proceeded as far as the fpot mark¬ ed (x)» in the valley between the moun¬ tain of Somma and that of Vefuvius, which is called Atrio di Cavallo. I was making my obfervations upon the lava, which had already, from the fpot (E) where it firft broke out, reached the valley 5 when, on a fudden, about noon, I heard a violent noife within the mountain, and at the fpot (C), about a quarter of a mile off the place where I flood, the mountain Iplit* 7 and.