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 To which are added, explanatory notes by the author, hitherto unpublished.

  • William Hamilton
Date:
1772
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 To which are added, explanatory notes by the author, hitherto unpublished.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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    felf merely to the many extraordinary ap-~ pearances that have come under my own in{pection; and “leave their explanation to the more learned in Natural Philofophy. During the firft}twelvemonth of my being here, I did not spores any re- mavKable alteration in the mountains’ but I obferved, the fmoke from the Volcano was:fnlich niore confiderable in bad wea- ther than when it was fair[a]; and I of- ten heard (even at Naples, fix miles from. Vefuvius) in bad weather, the inward’ ex- plofions of the mountain. When I have [a] Having reflected fince upon this circumftance, T rather believe that the weight of the atmofphere in bad ‘weather preventing the free diffipation | of the {moke, and: collecting it over the crater, gives it the,ap- pearance of being more confiderable ; whereas i in fine weather the fmoke is difperfed foon after its emiflions It is, however, flie cominon-received opinion at Naples (and. ftom .tmy own -obfervatién, is, I .beliéve, wéll founded), that. when Vefuvius grumbles, bad - weather is at hand, The fea of the Bay c of Naples, ‘being ‘patti- cularly agitated and {welling fome hours before the ar- rival off'a “ftorm, may véry probably force ‘itfelf into crevices, leading to the bowels of-the Volcano, and, by eaufing a new fermentation, produce thofe explofions and grumblings, 2 been
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