Page:Awful phenomena of nature (2).pdf/48

 the foot of the mountain were about ten or inches thick on the ſurface of the earth, but  proportion as he aſcended, their thickneſs increaſed to ſeveral feet, no leſs than nine or zen in  parts; ſo that the ſurface of the old rugged lava that before was almoſt impraticable, was now become a perfect plain. over which he walked the greateſt eaſe. The aſhes were of a light colour, and exceedingly fine, ſo that by the  ſteps being marked on them as on ſnow, he learns that three ſmall parties had been up before him. He ſaw likewiſe the track of a fox, which appeared have been quite bewildered, to judge from the many turns he had made. Even the traces of lizard and other little animals, and of inſects, were viſible on theſe fine aſhes. Sir William and his company on aſcended to the ſpot whence the lava of the 15th firſt iſſued, and followed the courſe of it, which was ſtill very hot (although covered with ſuch a thick coat of aſhes) quite down to the ſea at Torre del Greco, which is more than five miles. It was not poſſible to get up to the great crater of Veſuvius nor had any one yet attempted it. The horrid chaſms that exiſted from the foot were the late eruption firſt took place, in a ſtrait line for near two miles towards the ſea, cannot be imagined. They formed vallies more than two hundred feet deep, and from half a mile to a mile wide; and where the fountains of fiery matter exiſted during the eruption, were little mountains with deep craters. Ten thouſand men, in as many years, could not make ſuch an alteration on the face of Veſuvius. Except the exhalations of ſulphurous and vitriolic vapours, which broke out from different ſpots of the line abovementioned, and tinged the ſurface of the aſhes and ſcoriae in thoſe parts with either a deep or pale-yellow, with a reddiſh