Page:Burning mountains.pdf/20

(20) the foot of the mountain were about ten or tw inches thick on the ſurface of the earth, ba proportion as he aſcended, their thickneſs inced to ſeveral feet, no leſs than nine or ten in parts; to that the ſurface of the old rugged l that before was almost impracticable, was now  came 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 le that three ſmall parties had been up before him. ſaw likewiſe the track of a fox, which appeare have been quite bewildered, to judge from the ny turns he had made. Even the traces of liz and other little animals, and of inſects, were vi on theſe fine aſhes. Sir Willian and his compon aſcended to the ſpot whence the lava of the firſt iſſued, and followed the courſe of it, which  ſtill very hot (although covered with ſuch a th coat of aſhes quite down to the ſea at Torre del Greco, which is more than five miles. It was  poſſible to get up to the great crater of Veſuvius nor had any one yet attempted it. The ho chaſms that exiſted from the ſpot were the  eruption firſt took place, in a ſtrait line for  two miles towards the ſea, cannot be imagi They formed vallies more than two hundred  deep, and from half a mile to a mile wide;  where the fountains of fiery matter exiſted  ring the eruption, were little mountains with d craters. Ten thouſand men, in as many yea could not make such an alteration on the face Veſuvius. Except the exhalations of ſulphur and vitriolic vapours, which broke out from dif ent ſpots of the line abovementioned, and tin the ſurface of the aſhes and ſcoriae in thoſe p with either a deep or pale-yellow, with a red