Page:Burning mountains.pdf/17

 houſe by the lava a part of which had even enred one of the rooms; yet he actually ſaved all his eworks and gunpowder ſome days after, by caring them ſafely over the ſcoriae of the lava, while was red hot underneath. The heat in the ſtreets the town, at this time, was ſo great as to riſe e thermometer to very near one hundred degrees, {{illegible}d cloſe to the hot lava it roſe much higher. Sir William remarked in his way home, that there was much greater quantity of the petroleum floating the ſurface of the ſea, and diffuſing a very ſtrong d offenſive ſmell, than was uſual, for at all times  calms, patches of this bituminous oil are to be en floating on the ſurface of the ſea between Pori and Naples, and particularly oppoſite a village led Pietra Bianca. The minute aſhes continued lling at Naples; and the mountain, totally obſcur by them, continued to alarm the inhabitants th repeated loud exploſions.

On Wedneſday June 18, the wind having for a ort ſpace of time cleared away the thick cloud om the top of Veſuvius, it was now diſcovered at a great part of its crater, particularly on the eft ſide oppoſite Naples, had fallen in, which it obably did about four o'clock in the morning of at day, as a violent ſhock of an earthquake was t at that moment at Refina, and other parts ſitued at the foot of the volcano. The clouds of oke, mixed with the aſhes, were of ſuch a deny was to appear to have the greateſt difficulty in rcing their paſſage out of the now widly extended outh of Veſuvius, which, ſince the top fell in, is ſcribed as not much ſhort of two miles in circumrence. One cloud heaped on another, and ſueeeding one another inceſſantly; formed in a few urs ſuch a gigantic and elevated column of the rkeſt hue over the mountain, as ſeemed to threaten