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 To which are added, explanatory notes by the author, hitherto unpublished.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 To which are added, explanatory notes by the author, hitherto unpublished.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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$are Covered about: ten or fifteen feet, with pumice and fragments of lava; fome of which weigh three pounds \which laft cir- cumfiance I mention, to fhew, that, in a great eruption, Vefuvius has thrown {tones of this: weight ix, miles [p], which is’ its diftance fen Pompeii, in a direct line) ; = this {tratum of pumice, or ‘rapilli, as they call. them’ here, is a ftratum of a tT Have ‘finde foul ih this tratuch “oF erupted matter, at Pompeii, ftones weighing eight pounds ; but many accounts’ of the great eruption of. Vefuvius, particularly that of ‘Antonio Bulifon, mention that a itone like a bomb Was ‘thrown from the crater. of Ve- fuvids in 1631, ‘and fell upon the Marquis of Lauro’s houfe at Nola; which it fet on fire. As Nola is twelve miles from Vefuvius, this circumftance feems, rather ex- traordinary : however, [have feen ftones of an enornious fizé thot up toa very great ‘height by Mount Vefuvius. In May 1771, having’a! {top watch. in my hand, I ob- ferved that. one of thefe ‘ftenes was eleven feconds falling from i its greateft height, into the crater from whence it had been ejected, In 1767, a folid ttone, méafuring twelve feet in height, and forty- ‘five in eircumferéence, was thtown a quarter ofa mile from the crater ;- the eruption of 1767, though by much the imoft violent of this century, “was, comparatively to ca of the yeat 79: and x 631, very mild. excellent$