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 ; to which are added, explanatory notes by the author, hitherto unpublished.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 ; to which are added, explanatory notes by the author, hitherto unpublished.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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    Ships at Tea, twenty leagues from Naplesy were alfo covered with them, to the great dt Gio Francefco Sorrata Spinola Galateo, fays, that the 16th of December, 1631, the very day of the great eruption of Vefuvius (though perfectly calm), it rained allies at Lecce, which is nine days journey trom the mountain: that the day was darkened by them, and-* that they covered the ground three inches deep ; that afhes of a different quality fell at Bari the fame day; and that at both thele places the inhabitants were very greatly alarmed, not being able to conceive the oc- cafion of fuch a phenomenon. Antonio Bulifon, in his account of the fame eruption, fays, that the afhes fell, an<J lay feveral inches deep at Ariano in Puglia; and I have been affured, by many perfons of credit at Naples, that they have been fenfibleof the fall of alhes, during an eruption, at above two hundred miles dif- tance from Vefuvius. The Abbate Giulio Cefare Bra- cirri, in his account of the eruption of Vefuvius, in 1631, lays, that the height of the column of fmoak and afhes, taken from Naples by a quadrant, wras up¬ wards of thirty miles. Though luch uncertain cal¬ culations demand but little attention; yet, by what I have feen, I am convinced, that in great eruptions the allies are lent up to fo great a height as to meet with ex¬ traordinary currents of air, which is the molt probable way of accounting for their having been carried to fo <meat a diihnce in a few hours. In a book, intituled, Sah&tovis Varonii Fejwviam incendii Libri ires: JSeapolii aftanifh-