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 To which are added, explanatory notes by the author, hitherto unpublished.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

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 To which are added, explanatory notes by the author, hitherto unpublished.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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$The: caftle of Baia ftands upen a con- fiderable eminence, compofed of the ufuab tefa and ftrata of pumice and afhes; from which J concluded. I fhould find fome re- iains. of the craters from: whence the matter iTued accordingly, having afcended» the hill, I foon diicovered two very: vifible org- ters, juft behind the. cattle, The lake called the Mare-morto was alio, molt probably, the crater, from whence if+ fued the materials which formed the Pro- montory of Mifenum, and the high grounds around. this lake. . Under. the ruins. of-an ancient building near the - point: of; Mife- num, in a vault, there is a vapour,’ or mofete, exactly fimilar.in its effects to, that of the Grotto del.Cane,, as I have: often experienced, The form. of the little ifland. v Nifida {hews plainly. its origin[y’. tas half.a {r] The noxious vapours which Lucan mentions to haye prevailed at Nifida, favour my opinion as_to its origin: — Tali fpiramine Nefis «“ Emittit te nebulofis aera faxis.” Lucan, lib. vt. hollow$