(_e._) _Destruction of Pompeii._--Pompeii was overwhelmed with dry ashes and lapilli. Sir W. Hamilton found some of the stones to weigh eight pounds. At the time of the author's visit, early in April 1872, the excavations had laid open a section about ten feet deep, chiefly composed of alternating layers of small pumice stones (lapilli) and volcanic dust. It was during the sinking of a well in 1713 upon the theatre containing the statues of Hercules and Cleopatra that the existence of the ancient city was accidentally discovered. (_f._) _More recent eruptions._--Since the first recorded eruption in A.D. 79 down to the present day, Vesuvius has been the scene of numerous intermittent eruptions, of which some have been recorded; but many, doubtless, are forgotten. In A.D. 203, during the reign of Severus, an eruption of extraordinary violence took place, which is related by Dion Cassius, from whose narrative we may gather that at this time there was only one large crater, and that the central cone of Vesuvius had not as yet been upraised. In A.D. 472 an eruption occurred of such magnitude as to cover all Europe with fine dust, and spread alarm even at Constantinople. (_g._) _Eruption of 1631._--In December 1631 occurred the great convulsion whose memorials are written widely on the western face of Vesuvius in ruined villages. This eruption left layers of ashes over hundreds of miles of country, or heaps of mud swept down by hot water floods from the crater; the crater itself having been dissipated in the convulsion. Braccini, who examined the mountain not long before this eruption, found apparently no cone (or mount) like that of the modern Vesuvius. He states that the crater was five miles in circumference, about a thousand paces deep (or in sloping descent), and its sides covered with forest trees and brushwood, while at the bottom there was a plain on which cattle grazed.[7] It would seem that the mountain had at this time enjoyed a long interval of rest, and that it had reverted to very much the same state in which it was at the period of the first eruption, when the flanks were peopled by inhabitants living in fancied security. But six months of violent earthquakes, which grew more violent towards the close of 1631, heralded the eruption which took place in December, accompanied by terrific noises from within the interior of the mountain. The inhabitants of the coast were thus warned of the approaching danger, and had several days to arrange for their safety; but in the end, a great part of Torre del Greco was destroyed, and a like fate overtook Resina and Granatello, with a loss of life reported at 18,000 persons. During the eruption clouds condensed into tempests of rain, and hot water from the mountain, forming deluges of mud, swept down the sides, and reached even to Nola and the Apennines. Nor was the sea unmoved. It retired during the violent earthquakes, and then returned full thirty paces beyond its former limits.