XVIII. Some particulars of the present state of Mount Vesuvius; with the account of a journey into the province of Abruzzo, and a voyage to the island of Ponza. In a letter from Sir William Hamilton, K.B. F. R. S. and A.S. to Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. P. R. S

Abstract

Sir, The eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which began in the month of November 1784, nearly at the moment of my return from England to this capital, and which continued in some degree till about the 20th of last month, has afforded much amusement to travellers unacquainted with this wonderful operation of nature, but no new circumstances that could justify my troubling you with a letter on the subject. The lava either overflowed the rim of the crater, or issued from small fissures on its borders, on that side which faces the mountain of Somma, and ran more or less in one, and at times in three or four channels, regularly formed, down the flanks of the conical part of the volcano; sometime descending and spreading itself in the valley between the two mountains; and once, when the eruption was in its greatest force, in the month of November last, the lava descended still lower, and did some damage to the vineyards, and cultivated parts at the foot of Vesuvius, towards the village of St. Sebastiano; but generally the lava, not being abundant, stopped and cooled before it was able to reach the valley.