thighs, till they did sweat at the browes without the endammaging of their senses, who return'd, to the wonder of the guide, that thought they had preserved themselves by enchantments. By this their experiment it appeares that the aire is most deadly neere to the pores where it first ascended; especially to such creatures as hold their heads downeward, exhaling at their nostrils the dry and hote vapours. Thrust a torch neere the bottome, and it will forthwith go out: yet advanced higher, re-inflames, which approves the former assertion." OF THE DEATH OF PLINY THE NATURALIST. But although there were such gloomy places in the neighbourhood, in the reign of Trajan, less than a hundred years after the Christian Era, Mount Vesuvius was clothed with blooming vineyards, and corn fields, studded with villas and beautiful gardens, and with three or four rich and populous cities near its foot. The height of the mountain was then much less than it is at present, and it seems to have had a broad flat top, nearly surrounded by a ridge. [Illustration] This shape will account for the spot being chosen by the Roman rebel Spartacus to encamp in, with his gladiators and slaves, when he put Rome in danger. For some time before the first eruption on record, there were dreadful earthquakes, of which the effects are still to be seen in the cracked and ruined walls of Pompeii and Herculaneum. "There were great droughts," says the historian, "and violent earthquakes, so that the whole plain boiled and bubbled, and the hills leapt, and there were noises under ground like thunder, and above ground like roaring; the seas made a noise, and the Heavens resounded, and then a sudden mighty crash was heard, as if the mountains were dashed together; great stones were then hurled upwards, and were followed by mighty fires, and immense smoke, so that the whole air was overshadowed, and the sun quite hidden as in an eclipse." The same writer then tells us about some wonderful giants appearing to wander about the summit of the mountain, which neither you nor I shall be ready to believe. Pliny, the great naturalist, was at that time living at the town of Misenum, and as he was a man always prying into nature, and wishing to know the causes of things, you may suppose his curiosity was very much excited by these strange occurrences. But he paid dearly for this laudable curiosity, as you shall hear in the account which his nephew has left us of the event.