lake of Avernus, West to the Sudatory, and joining East to the foot of the Monte Barbaro; so that this place has changed its form and face in such a manner as not to be known again: a thing almost incredible, to those who have not seen it, that in so short a time so considerable a mountain could have been formed. On its summit there is a mouth in the form of a cup, which may be a quarter of a mile in circumference, though some say it is as large as our market-place at Naples, from which there issues a constant smoak; and though I have seen it only at a distance, it appears very great. The Sunday following, which was the 6th of October, many people going to see this phaenomenon, and some having ascended half the mountain, others more, about 22 o'clock there happened so sudden and horrid an eruption, with so great a smoak, that many of these people were stifled, some of which could never be found. I have been told, that the number of the dead or lost amounted to twenty-four. From that time to this, nothing remarkable happened; it seems as if the eruption returned periodically, like the ague or gout. I believe henceforward it will not have such force, though the eruption of the Sunday was accompanied with showers of ashes and water, which fell at Naples, and were seen to extend as far as the mountain of Somma, called Vesuvius by the ancients; and, as I have often remarked, the clouds of smoak proceeding from the eruption moved in a direct line towards that mountain, as if these places had a correspondence and connection one with the other. In the night, many beams and columns of fire were seen to proceed from this eruption, and some like flashes of lightning[38]. We have then, many circumstances for our observation, the earthquakes, the eruption, the drying up of the sea, the quantity of dead fish and birds, the birth of springs, the shower of ashes with water and without water, the innumerable trees in that whole country, as far as the Grotto of Lucullus, torn from their roots, thrown down, and covered with ashes, that it gave one pain to see them: and as all these effects were produced by the same cause that produces earthquakes; let us first enquire how earthquakes are produced, and from thence we may easily comprehend the cause of the abovementioned events." Then follows a dissertation on earthquakes, and some curious conjectures relative to the phaenomena which attended this eruption, clearly and well expressed, considering, as the author himself apologizes, that at that time the Italian language had been little employed on such subjects.