[33] Strabo, in his fifth book of Geography, says, "Supra haec loca situs est Vesuvius mons agris cinctus optimis: dempto vertice, qui magna sui parte planus, totus sterilis est, adspectu cinaereus, cavernasque ostendens fistularum plenas et lapidum colore fuliginoso, utpote ab igni exesorum, ut conjecturam facere possit ista loca quondam arsisse, et crateras ignis habuisse, deinde materia deficiente restincta fuisse." Diodorus Siculus, in his fourth book, describing the voyage of Hercules into Italy, says, "Phlegraeus quoque campus is locus appellatur a colle nimirum, qui AEtnae instar Siculae magnam vim ignis eructabat; nunc Vesuvius nominatur, multa inflammationis pristinae vestigia reservans." And Vitruvius, in the sixth chapter of the second book, says, "Non minus etiam memoratur antiquitus crevisse ardores et abundasse sub Vesuvio monte et inde evomuisse circa agros flammas." Tacitus, mentioning the eruption of Vesuvius in the reign of Titus, seems to hint likewise at former eruptions, in these words: "Jam vero novis cladibus, vel post longam saeculorum repetitis afflictae, haustae aut abrutae fecundissima Campaniae ora et urbs incendiis vastata." [34] Bracini, in his account of the eruption of 1613, says, that he found many sorts of sea shells on Vesuvius after that eruption; and P. Ignatio, in his account of the same eruption, says, that he and his companions picked up many shells likewise at that time upon the mountain: this circumstance would induce one to believe, that the water thrown out of Vesuvius, during that formidable eruption, came from the sea. [35] In book xi. c. 93. he observes, that about Sinuessa and Puteoli, "Spiracula vocant--alii Caroneas scrobes, mortiferum spiritum exhalantes." And Seneca, Nat. Quaest. lib. vi. cap. 28. "Pluribus Italiae locis per quaedam foramina pestilens exhalatur vapor, quem non homini ducere, non ferae tutum est. Aves quoque si in illum inciderint, antequam coelo meliore leniatur, in ipso volatu cadunt, liventque corpora, et non aliter quam per vim elisae fauces tument." [36] I have remarked, that, after a great fall of rain, the degree of heat in this water is much less, which will account for what the Padre Torre says (in his book, entituled, _Histoire et Phenomenes du Vesuve_), that, when he tried it in company with Monsieur de la Condamine, the degree of heat, upon Reaumur's thermometer, was 68 deg. [37] This very scarce volume has been presented by Sir William Hamilton to the British Museum. M. M. [38] Here again we have an example of the electrical fire attending a great eruption. [39] The cup, or crater, on the top of the new mountain is now covered with shrubs; but I discovered at the bottom of it, in the year 1770, amidst the bushes, a small hole, which exhales a constant hot and damp vapour, just such as proceeds from boiling water, and with as little smell; the drops of this steam hang upon the neighbouring bushes.