CHAPTER II

OF FIRE

The effects of fire* are various, It heats, it shines, it expands, it dissolves other bodies, either by melting or reducing them to ashes or calx. Most of these argue a vehement motion of its particles, which tears asunder whatever it seizes. It seems to be a most subtle matter, dispersed throughout the universe. Yet this, even when collected, soon scatters again, unless it be detained by some inflammable matter, Not that fire will spring from every motion: it must be circular, as well as rapid. For if particles move ever so swift in a strait line, no fire will follow.

* It should here be understood, that by the terms fire, pure fire, elementary fire, &c. as they are here used, is meant, the basis or matter of heat, fire, flame, &c. which in the new chemical nomenclature is termed caloric. This is an elemen­tary substance of so subtle a nature, that it penetrates all bodies, but in different quantities, and under different circumstances, according to the quantity present, and according to the capacities of bodies to receive it. It may be concentred in such quantities, and consequently to such degrees of intensity, as to destroy or dis­sipate all known substances. All bodies are capable of sustaining a certain quan­tity without their destruction. Indeed a certain proportion is necessary, and indis­pensable to the existence of all bodies; and it is highly presumable, that it could not be entirely eradicated from any body, under any possible circumstances. These facts, however, are well known ; that it can be concentred in most intense degrees, that it can occupy all bodies in vastly different proportions; that different bodies demonstrate very different capacities for it; that some are more powerful conduc­tors of it than others; and that all bodies can endure a certain degree of it, and still retain their coherence: but beyond that degree, they suffer disorganization and destruction, and are reduced to calces, ashes, or vapour.

Caloric is a substance which pervades all bodies, even every particle of the air, and the earth; and it rushes with a velocity proportioned to its degree of inten­sity, to supply an equal temperature. It remains fixed in all bodies, and perhaps the degree of its fixidity constitutes the capacity of combustion, and the capacity of enduring it in certain degrees of intensity; and would it not hence appear plau­sible that those substances wherein this capacity existed in the least degree, would become the most powerful conductors of it. It exists abundantly in wood, hence wood is a poor conductor. It exists abundantly less in metals, hence metals are more powerful conductors of it, and this would appear in proportion to the sense of different degrees of coldness, in the different substances, as metals feel so much colder than wood.

Heat seems to be nothing but motion: but this motion has some peculiar circumstances. 1. It is expansive motion, whereby a body endeavours to dilate itself. 2. This motion is upward, and toward the circumference. 3. It is not an equable motion of the whole, but only of the smaller particles of the body. 4. It is a rapid motion. Heat may therefore be defined, an expansive, undulatory motion in the minute particles of a body, whereby they rapidly tend to the circum­ference, and at the same time upward.

Fire has some effect on most bodies, even in an exhausted receiver. One placed a black ribbon therein, and then applied a burning-glass. Abundance of smoke issued out of it, which fell by little and little, and

Caloric cannot be confined by any means, hence it is ranked among the unconfinable elements. Its exclusive office seems to be to unite with other bodies, to capacitate them; to give them the powers of motion, and to qualify them for their infinite variety of operations in nature. It cannot exist in an independent state, but it is observable, that it has its degrees of affinity. It naturally exists in smaller quantities in some bodies, than others, and probably it approaches more towards an abstract and independent character in electricity, than in any other state; though it appears to be a physical impossibility to separate it entirely from other elementary matter, yet by what subtle substances it is retained in the Leyden phial, it appears an equal impossibility to ascertain; however, we may safely conclude that light is one of those substances, but there appears to be a third sub­stance something like magnetism, which gives polarity to electricity. Whatever it may be, it appears to be a latent gass combined with oxygen, and which is set at liberty by its decomposition, and we constantly observe in electricity the cor­respondent characteristics of the tripple compound, the effects of caloric, the velo­city of light, and the power of magnetism.

Hot and cold we say, and apply the epithets on various occasions, but these are mere local circumstances of comparative quantities: there is neither heat nor cold in equal temperature, lithe one body in contact, is charged with a greater quan­tity of caloric than the organs of sensation, or the other body, the consequent sen­sation or effect, we term heat, or the effect of heat to that body. But it should be remembered, that it is cold, or the effect of cold, to the other body; for the recip­rocal effect is in a duplicate ratio. If we instance the effects of caloric in water, we shall be presented with an illimitable gradation of consequences. It may be so abundantly charged with caloric beyond its capacity, as to be thrown into the most violent agitations, and fly off in prodigious quantities, in the form of vapour, with astonishing powers. It may be charged in other variable degrees, so as to be what we term hot, warm, lukewarm, &c. It may be reduced to an equal tempe­rature, and then it will be neither hot nor cold; it may be reduced in degrees on the other extreme, from the mean of equal temperature, and then it will be cold very cold, intensely cold, &c. and this diminution may be carried on to still greater degrees, insomuch that the particles of water will be distended, and reduced from their calorific menstruation, to actual cohesion, and become a solid body; which from the distension of its particles, will occupy a greater space than in the liquid form. Water thus reduced to a state of solidity we call ice; even in this state it is not to be supposed that the water is entirely divested of caloric, but that the quantity of caloric as a cause, is so variously reduced, as to produce the various effects.

the ribbon appeared not at all changed. But when it was touched, after the re-admission of the air, it presently fell into ashes.

The glass being applied to gunpowder so enclosed, it burnt grain by grain, but none of the grains kindled. Another time when the sun had less force, they would not burn, but only boiled and emitted smoke. This smoke failing on the board on which the powder lay, was of the colour of brimstone. The powder that remained, being put on coals, burned like saltpetre, inasmuch as the brimstone had exhaled.

Tin and copper melted together weigh more than both bodies did before. Yea, orpin being mixed with salt of tartar, is heavier by a fifth part.

To account for this, it has been commonly supposed. that fire adds to the weight of bodies. But fire has itself no weight at all: therefore it can give none. Pure fire, as Dr. Hillary observes, is a body without gravity, and has no more tendency to any one part of space, than to another.

Is not then this alteration of weight rather owing to an alteration of the inward texture of the particles in the body calcined? The lighter particles being removed by exhalation, do not those remaining approach nearer each other? And must not then the weight, which is always as the solidity, increase accordingly ?*

It seems strange, to talk of heating cold liquors with ice. Yet it may easily be done thus. Out of a basin of cold water, wherein seve­ral fragments of ice are swimming, take one or two, and plunge them into a wide-mouthed glass of strong oil of vitriol : this quickly melts the ice, and by two or three shakes, the liquor grows so hot, that fre­quently you cannot endure to hold the phial in your hand.

It may seem as strange, that those parts of the earth which are near­est the sun should be intensely cold. Yet so it is. For the higher you ascend on mountains, the colder is the air. And the tops of the highest mountains in the most sultry countries are eternally clothed with snow. This is partly owning to the thinness of the air, and partly to the little surface of earth there to reflect the solar rays

* It is now ascertained, that bodies in combustion, absorb oxygen, and that the increase of their weight is exactly equal to the quantity of oxygen decomposed. Metals by fusion are reduced to oxide, and they are restored to the metalic state by fusion with substances which have a more powerful attraction for the oxygen than the metals. Charcoal is of this description. In this case the oxides lose that proportion of weight which they had gained by the process of oxydation.

Oil of vitriol, or as is more properly termed in the new nomenclature, sulphuric acid, has so powerful an attraction for water, and decomposes it with such faci­lity, as to give out a prodigious quantity of heat, insomuch as to make the water boil furiously if mixed in the due proportions, which is about 1 to 3.

This is a fact, which shows that heat does not travel to us from the sun. Calo­ric is unquestionably a constituent elementary part of our globe, and is attached to it, and does not travel far into the atmosphere; it is an elementary substance

Very different degrees of heat, obtain in the same latitude, on the different sides of the South American continent: which shows that the temperature of a place depends much more upon other circumstances, than upon its distance from the pole, or nearness to the equinoctial. Thus though the coast of Brazil is extremely sultry, yet the coast of the South seas, in the same latitude, is quite temperate, and in ranging along it, one does not meet with so warm weather, as is frequent in a summer’s day in England : which is the more extraordinary, as there never falls any rain to refresh and cool the air. On the coast of Peru, even under the line, every thing contributes to make the day agreea­ble. In other countries, the scorching sun in summer, makes the day unfit either for labour or amusement: and the rains are no less trouble­some, in the cooler parts of the year. But in this delightful climate the sun rarely appears; for there is constantly a gray, cheerful sky, just sufficient to screen the sun, without obscuring the air. Thus all parts of the day are proper for labour, while the coolness produced elsewhere by rains, is here brought about by fresh breezes from the cooler regions.

This is chiefly owing to the Andes, which running not far from, and nearly parallel with the shore, and rising immensely higher than any other mountains in America, form on their sides a prodigious tract of land, where, according to their different heights, all kinds of climates may be found, at all seasons of the year. These mountains intercept great part of the eastern winds, which generally blow on the continent of America, coal that part of tile air which comes over their tops, and keep it cool by the snows, with which they are always covered. Thus by spreading the influence of their frozen crests, to the neighbouring coasts and seas, the cause the temperature and equability which con­stantly prevail there. But when they leave these mountains, they experience in a short time an entire change of climate, and in two or three days pass from the temperate air of Peru, to the sultry atmos­phere of the West Indies.

The sparks which appear on striking fire with a flint and steel, are discovered by the microscope, to be so many spherical balls of iron, detached by the blow from the mass. They are then red hot. After they cool, they are a sort of scoriae or dross.

2. Fire is generated chiefly, either by collecting the sunbeams by a glass., or by rubbing hard bodies against each other. Either way, the subtle matter is collected from all sides, and put into a rapid, circular

which is put in motion by the force of attraction, and consequently it will be the most concentred in the atmosphere, where that force is greatest, and that is under the equator; but even here its degrees of concentration will depend on the degrees of elevation from the surface of the earth, for that may be so great as to penetrate the regions of intense cold.

motion. This continues together, as long as it is supplied with inflam­mable substances. The particles of these being divided by the fire, are scattered hither and thither, and the fire goes out unless fresh fuel be brought: as it does if air be wanting. For as that subtle matter is dissipated continually, it soon fails, unless recruited from the air. If water or dust be thrown upon fire, it is likewise quickly extinguished. For these interrupt that internal motion which is essential to it.

That fuel cannot consume without air, is clearly proved by an easy experiment. Let a strong hollow cylinder of iron, be fitted with a firm screw at each end. Enclose in this a piece of charcoal: then screw up both ends, and place it in a strong fire. Let it stay there as long as you will. Open it when cool, and the charcoal is no way diminished.* It is plain from this, that the consumption of fuel depends upon the rarefaction and agitation of its parts by fresh air. And hence when we have the reason of the known method of extin­guishing fires by smothering them.

3. The watery parts of the fuel being rarified by the heat, ascends in the form of smoke, carrying with it many of the lighter particles which, adhere as soot to the chimney. The grosser and more compact the contexture whereof the fire cannot wholly destroy, remain and con­stitute ashes, which are of consequence extremely porous, all that was combustible in it being consumed.

To enlarge a little on this subject. Fire is a body, and a body in motion. It is in motion: for it expands the air, which can no other­wise be done, than by communicating motion to it. - And that it is a ‘body appears hence. Pure mercury enclosed in a phial, and kept in a gentle heat for a year, is reduced into a solid; and its weight is con­siderably increased, which can only spring from the accession of fire.

Fire is the instrument of all the motion in the universe. Without it all bodies would ‘become immoveable. Men would harden into statues: and not only water, but air cohere into a firm, rigid mass.

As it is in itself, it is termed ELEMENTARY FIRE: joined with other bodies, it is called CULINARY. The minute particles of this, joining with those of the pure fire, constitute what is termed FLAME. Pure fire, such as is collected by a burning-glass, yields no flame, smoke, or ashes. In itself it is imperceptible, but is discovered by its effects. The first of these is HEAT, which arises wholly from fire, and the mea­

* The coal in this situation could not consume, because it is deprived of oxygen, the air, which abounds with oxygen, being excluded, the coal must remain una]­tered even in the most intense heat; but convey a stream of pure oxygen gass into the tube, and its consumption would be more rapid than by the common atmos­pheric air. Oxygen is a grand, constituent, elementary principle of lire, and no combustion could possibly take place without it.

By all these expressions is evidently meant the basis of fire, flame, heat. smoke. &c. which, as already observed, is termed caloric.

sure of heat is always as the measure of fire. The second is DILATA­TION in all solid, and RAREFACTION in all fluid bodies, So an iron rod, the, more it s heated, increases the more in all its dimensions; and by the same degrees that it cools, it contracts, till it shrinks to its first mag­nitude. So gold, when fused, takes up more space than it did before. And mercury ascends in a hollow tube over the fire, to above thirty times its former height. The same degree of heat rarefies fluids sooner, and in a greater degree, than it does solids; and the lighter the fluid, the more it is dilated. Thus air, the lightest of all fluids, expands the most, The third effect of fire is MOTION: for in dilating bodies, it must needs move their parts. All motion springs from it. Only take fire away,, and all nature would grow into one concrete, solid as gold, and, hard as diamond,

Pure fire needs no air to sustain it. Put calx of tin into an exhausted receiver, and if you apply a burning-glass, the calx will be so vehemently dilated, as to break the receiver into a thousand pieces.

All the effects of elementary fire may be increased. 1. By rub­bing one body against another. And the more hard and solid the bodies are, the more heat is produced. So sponges rubbed together, acquire little or no heat: but two pieces of iron, an intense heat. 2. By mixing certain bodies together. So steel filings, mixed with oil of cloves or spirit of nitre, grow exceedingly hot; yea, burst into a violent flame.

Yet it does not appear that any new fire is generated in any of these ways. Friction does not create fire, but only collect what was before dispersed. It is present every where, in all bodies, in all space, at all times, and that in equal quantities.⁵ Go where you will, to the highest mountain, or the deepest cavern, by one or other of these ways lire may be collected. Yea, there is no place in the world, where the attrition of two sticks will not make it sensible.

But in what manner soever fire is collected, if the collecting cause cease, it disappears again, unless it be supplied with fuel, and then it

* The element of lire does not appear to be uniformly diffused; though it has an invariable tendency to diffuse itself uniformly; but it appears to be diverted from this tendency, by its affinities to the variable capacity of matter. Caloric has been known to be concentred so abundantly in the air, as spontaneously to set on fire combustible bodies. We have instances on record, of the ripe harvest being set on fire by the excessive heat of the weather. In Africa and some parts of Asia, where certain winds blow, it concentres in streaks of liquid fire, and what­ever animal breathes the ethereal flame it instantly dies. All the animals in the district give notice of its approach by cries of distress, and they stand with their noses to the earth to avoid the deadly blast. The inhabitants shut themselves up in their houses, and dare not venture abroad, until the flaming breeze has past. Hence it appears, that caloric is variously concentred, by various circumstances and is not uniformly diffused through nature.

becomes culinary fire. By fuel we mean whatever receives and retains fire, and is consumed thereby. The only fuel in nature is oil or sulphur, and bodies are only fuel, as containing oil. Hence, 1. Alt vegetables,, not too moist or too dry, affords fuel, particularly those which contain much oil, as balsamic and resinous woods. 2. All vegetable and animal coals, being those parts which have exhaled their water and salt, and retained the oil alone inhering in the earth. 3. All bituminous earth. 4. All mineral sulphur, whether pure or joined with other things. 5. The fat and dung of animals: and, 6. Chemical oil and spirits.

On the removal of air, this fire goes out. Yet it does not immedi­ately bear the air, but repels it, and by that means forms a kind of vault, which by its weight, and the pressure of the incumbent air, con­fines the particles that would otherwise. escape, and applies them to the combustible matter. Hence the heavier the air, the fiercer the fire; which therefore is fiercest in still, cold weather.

The fire in’ burning combustible matter, affords a shining fire or flame, or both and frequently too, smoke, soot and ashes. Shining fire seems to be elementary fire, so strongly attracted toward the par­ticles of the fuel, as to whirl, divide, attenuate them, and thus render them volatile, and just fit to be expelled. Flame seems to be the most volatile part of the fuel, greatly rarefied and heated red hot. Soot is a sort of coal, consisting of a thick sulphur, and an attenuated oil, with earth, and salt. Smoke is the earthy and watery particles of the fuel, so rarefied as to break through into the atmosphere. Ashes are the earth and salt, which the fire leaves unchanged.

Fire increases the weight of some bodies. Thus if antimony be placed under a burning-glass, the greatest part of it will seem to evaporate in fumes, and yet if it is weighed, it will be found to have gained in weight.

But beside the solar, there is a subterraneous lire. The earth is only cold to the depth of forty or fifty feet. Then it begins to grow warmer; and at a great depth it is so hot as to destroy respiration.* Hence we learn that there is another source of fire, or as it were ano­ther sun in the bosom of the earth.

Upon the application of fire to water, it boils: that is, the particles of fire, passing through the pores of the vessel, strike on the lowest particles of the water, impel them upwards, and render them lighter than before, both by inflating them into little vesicles, and by breaking and separating their spherules. There will of consequence be a con­stant flux of water, from the bottom of the vessel to the top. And hence we see, why the water is hot at the top, sooner than at the bottom.

*This consequence is not uniform, for it is found, by experience, that there are as well as hot currents of air, and water, in the bowels of the earth; and that the absence of oxygen is the cause of the destruction of respiration.

Farther, the air contained in the interstices of the water being dilated, and its spring increased by the heat, it ascends through the water into the air, carrying with it the contiguous particles of water. And by this means much of the water will be heaved up, and let fall alternately, as the air has no power to carry away into the atmosphere more than that small part that rises in the steam.

4. That this subtle matter is plentifully collected in the bowels of the earth, appears from burning mountains. It is observed, that there is always in the neighbourhood of these, plenty of sulphur or bitumen, the stench whereof spreads far and near, especially before any great erup­tion. This feeds the fire, which maybe kindled by various means, so as to continue for many centuries. AEtna and Vesuvius have burned for above two thousand years, and probably will till the end of time.

5. Mount Aetna is divided into three distinct regions, called La Regione Culta, the Fertile Region; La Regione Sylvosa, the Woody Region; and La Regione Deserta, the Barren Region.

The three are as different, both in climate and productions, as the three zones of the earth: and perhaps with equal propriety might have been styled the torrid, the temperate, and the frigid zones. The first region surrounds the foot of the mountain, and constitutes the most fertile country in the world, on all sides of it, to the extent of about forteen or fifteen miles, where the woody region begins. It is com­posed almost entirely of lava, which, after a number of ages, is at last converted into the most fertile of all soils.

Every eruption generally forms a new mountain. As the great cra­ter of Aetna itself is raised to such an enormous height above the lower regions of the mountain, it is not possible that the internal lire raging for vent, even round the base, and no doubt vastly below it, should be carried to the height of twelve or thirteen thousand feet to the summit of Aetna. It has therefore generally happened, that after shaking the mountain and its neighbourhood for some time, it at last bursts open its side. At first it only sends forth a thick smoke and showers of ashes, that lay waste the adjacent country: these are soon followed by red hot stones, and rocks of a great size, thrown to an immense height in the air. The fall of these stones, together with the quantity of ashes discharged at the same time, at last form one of these spherical and conical mountains. Sometimes this process is fin­ished in the course of a few days: sometimes it lasts for months, which was the case in the eruption in 1669. In that case the mountains formed are of a great size; some of them are not less than seven or eight miles round, and upwards of one thousand feet in perpendicular height; others are not more than two or three miles round, and three or four hundred feet high.

After the new mountain is formed, the lava generally bursts out from its lower side; and bearing away every thing before it, is for the most part terminated by the sea. This is the common progress of an eruption! however, it sometimes happens, though rarely, that the lava bursts at once from the side of the mountain, without all these attend­ing circumstances: and this is commonly the case with the eruption of Vesuvius, where the elevation being so much smaller, the melted mat­ter is generally carried up into the crater of the mountain, which then discharges showers of stones and ashes from the mouth of the volcano, without forming any new mountain, but only adding considerably to the height of the old one; till at last the lava, rising near the summit, bursts the side of the crater, and the eruption is discharged. This has been the case with two eruptions lately; but Aetna is upon a much larger scale, and one crater is not enough to give vent to such oceans of liquid ‘fire.

A Sicilian gentleman saw, in an eruption of that mountain, large rocks of fire discharged to the height of some thousand feet, with a noise more terrible, than that of thunder. He measured, from the time ‘of their greatest elevation till they reached the ground, and found they took twenty-one seconds to descend, with (the spaces being as the squares of the times) amounted to upwards of seven thousand feet.

After contemplating these objects for some time, says a late traveller, we set off, and soon after arrived at the foot of the great crater of Aetna. This is of an exact conical figure, and rises equally on all sides. It is composed solely of ashes, and other burnt materials, discharged from the mouth of the volcano, which is in its centre. This conical mountain is of a very large size; its circumference cannot be less than ten miles. Here we took a second rest, as the greatest part of our fatigue still remained. The mercury had fallen to 20. 4 1/2 We found this mountain excessively steep; and although it had appeared black, yet it was likewise covered with snow; but the surface, luckily for us, was spread over with a pretty thick layer of ashes, thrown from the crater. Had it not been for this, we never should have been able to come to the top.

The circumference of this zone, or great circle on AEtna, is not less ‘than seventy or eighty miles. It is every where succeeded by the vineyards, orchards and corn fields, that compose the Regions Cults, or the Fertile Region. The last zone is much broader than the others, and extends on all sides to the foot of the mountain. Its whole circum­ference is 183 miles.

The present crater of this immense volcano is a circle of about three miles and a half in circumference. It goes shelving down on each side, and forms a regular hollow, like a vast amphitheatre. From many places of this space, issues volumes of sulphureous smoke, which being much heavier than the circumambient air, instead of rising in it, as smoke generally does, immediately on its getting out of the crater, rolls down the side of the mountain like a torrent, till coming to that part of the atmosphere of the same specific gravity with itself, it shoots off horizontally; and forms a large tract in the air, according to the direc­tion of the wind: which, happily for us, carried it exactly to the side opposite to that where we were placed. The crater is so hot that it is very dangerous, if not impossible, to go down into it: besides the smoke is very incommodious, and in many places the surface is so soft,, there have been instances of people sinking down into it, and paying for their temerity with their lives. Near the centre of the crater is the great mouth of the volcano, that tremendous gulf so celebrated in all ages. We beheld it with awe, and with horror, and were not sur­prised that it had been considered as the place of the damned. When we reflect on the immensity if its depth, the vast cells and caverns whence so many lavas have issued; the boiling of the matter, the shak­ing of the mountain, the explosion of flaming rocks, we must allow that the liveliest imagination hardly ever formed an idea of hell more dread­ful.

Kircher pretends to have measured it, and to have found it four thousand French toises in height; which is more than any of the Andes are. The Italian mathematicians are still more absurd. Some of them make it eight miles, some six, and some four. Arnici, the last, and I believe the best who has made this attempt, reduces it to three miles two hundred and sixty-four paces; but even this must be exceedingly erroneous, and probably the perpendicular height of Aetna is little more than two miles.

It is a curious consideration that this mountain should re-unite every beauty and every horror: and, in short, all the most opposite and dis­similar objects in nature. Here you observe a gulf, that formerly threw out torrents of fire, now covered with the most luxuriant vegeta­tion; and from an object of horror becomes one of delight. Here you gather the most delicious fruits, rising from what was lately a black and barren rock. Here the ground is covered with every flower; and we wander over these beauties, and contemplate this wilderness of sweets without considering that hell and all its terrors are immediately under our feet, and that but few yards separate us from lakes of liquid fire and brimstone.

But our astonishment still increases, on casting our eyes on the higher regions of the mountain. There you behold in perpetual union, the two elements that are at perpetual war; an immense gulf of fire, for ever existing in the midst of snows, which it has not power to melt; and immense fields of snow and ice for ever surrounding this gulf of lire, which they have not power to extinguish.

The quantity of matter discharged from Aetna is supposed, upon a moderate computation, to exceed twenty times the original bulk of the mountain. The greatest part of Sicily seems covered with its eruptions. The inhabitants of Catanea have found, at the distance of seve­ral miles, streets and houses, sixty feet deep, overwhelmed by the lava or matter it has discharged: nay, the walls of these very houses have been built of materials evidently thrown up by the mountain. The inference is obvious: that the matter thus exploded cannot belong to the mountain itself: otherwise it would have been quickly consumed; it cannot be derived from moderate depths: since its amazing quantity evinces that all the places near the bottom, must have long since been exhausted: it must therefore be supplied from the deeper regions of the earth, the undiscovered tracts, where the Deity performs his won­ders in solitude.

An eruption of Mount Aetna, in 1669 was preceded, for eighteen days, with a dark, thick sky, thunder, lightning, and frequent tremblings of the earth. The place of eruption was twenty miles from the old mouth: the matter of it was a stream of melted minerals, boiling up and gushing out, as water does at the head of a great river. Having run thus for more than a stone’s cast, the extremeties began to crust, anti turn into porous stones, resembling, huge cakes of sea coal, full of a fierce fire. These came rolling over one another, and where any thing opposed, filled up the space and rolled over. But they bore down any common building, and burnt up all that was combustible. This inundation went on about a furlong a day, for nineteen or twenty days. It overwhelmed fourteen towns and villages. The noise of the eruption was heard sixty miles.

On Sunday, March 9, 1755, about noon, Mount Aetna began to cast from its mouth a great quantity of flame and smoke, with a most horri­ble noise. At four o’clock the air became quite dark and covered with black clouds. At ‘six a shower of stones, each weighing about three ounces, began to fall all over the’ city of Mascali and its territories. This shower lasted till a quarter past seven; and was succeeded all night by a shower of black sand. On Monday morning at eight, there sprang from the bottom of the mountain a river of scalding hot water, which, in half a quarter of an hour, overflowed all the rugged land that is near the foot of the hill, and suddenly going off, left the whole a large plain of sand. The stones and sand which remain wherever this water reached, differ in nothing from the stones and sand of the sea, and have even the same saltness. After the water was gone there sprang from the same opening a small stream of fire, which continued for twenty. four hours. On Tuesday, about a mile below this opening, there arose another stream of fire, which being in breadth about four hundred feet, overflowed all the adjacent country.

6.On the 3d of December, 1754. a stream of liquid fire began to run down the side of Mount Vesuvius, from an opening on the east side. But it soon ceased running from this orifice, and burst out from a much larger one, about two hundred yards below it. Afterward it burst out from a third orifice, and having ran for some space with great fury, the surface then began to cool and incrust, as it ran over gently declining ground, till it came within about ten yards of the top of a steep declivity. Here the fire collected, as in a reservoir, to supply a cascade, which rushed down from thence in a channel of more than twenty feet wide, and about two hundred yards in length, with a fall of at least fifty feet. After this the stream was less rapid, but grew wider, and spread several miles from its source. It now presented a very different scene from what it afforded before. The cascade, says an eye witness, looks like melted gold, and tears off large bodies of old lava (so they term the incrustation) which float down the stream, till the intenseness of the heat lifts them from the bottom. But in the lower country, it divides into smaller streams, running with less rapidity: and yet with such violence, that it drives the strongest stone fences before it, and lighting the trees like torches, afford a most extraordi­nary, though dismal spectacle.

On December 23, 1760, about two in the morning, a violent shock of an earthquake was felt near Mount Vesuvius. Some time after, some countrymen being at work, four or five miles from it, perceived the ground near them on a sudden heave and gape, like dough that is rising. At the same time they observed smoke issuing from the clefts. They immediately fled, till they thought they were out of danger And then looking back, saw the water of a cistern, near which they had been at work, spout out to a great height. This was succeeded by a large discharge of fiery matter from the mouth of the cistern, and from four other openings, attended with a dreadful noise and explosion of burning stones. On a sudden all the fiery streams united in one, flowed impetuously down the mountain, and gliding quick as lightning, pre­sently covered all the adjacent lands. Meantime the whole mountain shook greatly, and a fixed pillar of smoke issued out of the main aper­ture, which rising to a certain height, then dissolved into ashes, and fell like rain all over the mountain. At the same time an immense quantity of burning stones was thrown out.

The fiery stream continues running down the mountain, the whole night between the 23d and 24th. Houses, gardens, and every thing in its way, were consumed. And ashes were still thrown out, which lay deep on the ground for several miles about, and reached as far as the sea coast.

On the 25th, also, there was an eruption of liquid lire, with a shower of stones and a huge noise. In several parts this stream was fifty spans deep. The mountain meantime continued to roar, and thick ashes fell like rain over the whole country.

On the 26th, both the mountain itself and the hills lately produced, sent forth stones and ashes, the bellowings were still heard, but with intermissions : and out of the five apertures, two only continued to emit stones, ashes, and fire.

On the 27th, only one fiery stream remained, and that began to cool, and to lose its brightness, appearing more dusky, like burning coals ready to go. out. On the 28th, the stream ran much slower, and no more burning stones were cast out. The height of the chief hill raised thereby was about two hundred spans; and its circumference about two hundred paces, The motion of the lava in front was very slow; it gained ground only on the sides. The hill where the last aperture was, burst, and fire issued from all the fissures.

On the 29th, the lava having ceased, appeared to have reached about one mile in breadth, and four miles in length The new raised bills were now quiet; but the top of Vesivius still cast out ashes and smoke, and some showers of stones. About eight at night the bill was overturned with a great crack, and on the 30th emitted nothing. But from the mouth of Vesuvius, clouds and ashes came in great abundance. From the whole it appears, that the inflammatory contents take fire at a great depth in the cavern, and it is highly probable, it is the sea water which feeds this subterraneous fire, by means of some communications which the volcano has with the Mediterranean.

Although the fiery eruptions of Mount Vesuvius strike the neighbourhood with horror; yet as even noxious things bring some advantage with them, so this mountain, by the sulphureous and nitrous particles with which it manures the ground, and the heat of its subterra­neous passages, much contributes to its common fertility. And wherever these inflammable substances abound, it is better they should have avent than not. So experience shows, that their country has had fewer earthquakes, and those less fatal in their effects, since the eruption of the subterraneous matter, through the mouth of Vesuvius. And the inhabitants are not much alarmed at seeing the usual vernal explosions. ‘

The distance from Naples to the foot of Vesuvius, is five Italian miles, from whence to the top is near three miles further. It properly consists of two hills, though only one of them emits fire and smoke. The valley between them is about a mile long, and extremely fertile. The burning summit, which is the lowest of the two, is eleven hundred fathom above the surface of the sea. From Resina, the ascent grows steeper, and many stones are scattered about as memorials of its former devastations. It is astonishing to think of the force, by which such bulks of four or five hundred weight have been thrown several miles from the hill.

This being steep, and covered with black ashes, the ascent is very difficult. From the mouth frequently issues a flood of lava, or compo­sition of sulphur, metals, and minerals. This ejected matter lies still, one layer above another, with large stones projecting above the sur­face, which in their course along the fiery river, were stopped by their inequalities, and fixed in the melted matter, gradually hardened. These streams are not thrown up from the mountain,, like the stones, but pour down as from an inclined vessel, proceeding, it seems, from the whole cavity, which is then full of melted substances.

About half way up the mountain, says Mr. Keysber, we met with stones of above a hundred weight, glowing hot, which when broken had exactly the appearance of red hot iron. As we went on, we beard a most horrid noise, resembling the discharge of a whole battery of cannon, and under our feet we perceived a rumbling, like the boiling of a large caldron. At last we reached the place where the largest volcano was formerly mated. But it is now not only choaked up, but covered with a round pile of ashes and lava. Thirty years since there was a plain about three thousand yards to cross, before you came to the skirts of this new mountain. But it is now so enlarged, that in most places, the plain is but about thirty yards broad. Probably in a few years it will be quite filled up, and the two mountains joined in one. Here the increase of heat was very sensible, especially at every explosion, when the ashes flew so strongly in our faces, that we were obliged to cover our eyes. The ground also was so hot under our feet that it burnt the soles of our shoes. Every eruption was attended with a whizzing noise, like that of many rockets thrown up at once. The clouds of smoke, and the multitude of stones thrown into the air, totally obscured the sky. Most of the stones, especially if large, fell again into the abyss from which they were projected. Great quanti­ties however fell on the sides of the mountain, and rolled down with a hideous noise.

Even when all is still, the bottom of the cavity is seldom seen, by reason of the smoke. When it is, it is subject to great variation. Sometimes it is of a prodigious depth: at other times hardly more than a hundred feet, according to the rising or falling of the melted matter, since the last eruption, by the hardening of which this bottom is formed.

Since the birth of Christ, there are recorded upwards of twenty memorable eruptions of Vesuvius. One of the most violent was, that which happened in the reign of Titus Vespasian, and destroyed the cities Herculaneum, Stabice and Pompeii, which then stood near Naples. During that eruption the ashes were driven as far as Africa, Syria and Egypt, and even at Rome, the sun was darkened by them. These cities were partly swallowed up, partly buried in the burning lava, so that not the least remains of them were to be seen.

But within a few years many things have been dug out of Hercula­rieum, near Portici, the king of Naples’ palace. Among these are many paintings done in stucco, in water colours in fresco. They have been taken from the walls of an amphitheatre, a temple, and several houses, and are in great variety, some perfectly well preserved.

Four capital pieces are so extremely well executed that Don Francesco de la Vega, a painter, whom the king of Naples sent for from Rome, to take draughts of these paintings, said, "if Raphael were alive, he would be glad to study these drawings, and perhaps take les­sons from them.” Nothing can be more just and correct. The mus­cles are exactly and softly drawn, every one in its own place, without any of that preternatural swelling seen in the works of some of the best Italitan masters. And it is surprising to see how fresh the colours are, considering they have been under the ground above six­teen hundred and fifty years.

The matter thrown out at Vesuvius, shows whence its fiery erup­tions arise. For, pour water on sulphur, mixed with filings of iron, and it soon breaks out into a dame. That abundance of sulphur and iron is contained in Vesuvius, appears not only from what is ejected, but also from the mineral water, issuing from the foot of the mountain. The neighbouring sea both supplies moisture to these inflammable sub­stances, as also salt and bitumen. That Vesuvius has a communication with the sea, experience shows, the waters being surprisingly absorbed, in 1681, before the eruption, so that several vessels before afloat were left dry. Likewise. in 1698, the sea suddenly ebbed twelve paces and the mountain discharged a torrent of bituminious matter. When the discharge ceased, and the sea returned to its former height, great quan­tities of shells, half burnt, and emitting a sulphurous smell, were found along the shore In another violent eruption, not only shells, but sea weeds, and hot sea water were ejected.

This volcano, however, affords several fresh springs, some of which are conveyed to Naples, by a beautiful aqueduct. These waters have not the least heat in them. Nay, a cold wind is felt to blow from several fissures and chasms of the mountain.

The whole country for twenty miles or more round Naples, is the product of subterraneous fires. Probably the sea reached the moun­tains that lie behind Capua and Caserta. These tires seem to have worked under the bottom of the sea, as moles in a field, throwing up here and there a hillock. And the matter thrown out of some of these hillocks formed into settled volcanos, tilling up the space between them, has composed this part of the continent, and many of the islands adjoining.

Were the matter carefully examined, it would be found, (just con­trary to the common opinion) that most mountains which are or have been volcanos, owe their existence to subterraneous fire.*

* If we seriously consider the structure of our globe, and reflect on the capaci­ties of the materials of which it is composed, we shall be very apt to discover, that it is not more wonderful that there should be seas, and torrents of liquid fire, than that there should be oceans of water, and tracts of land; that it is not more won­derful, that there should be streams of liquid fire in the bowels of the earth, than that there should be streams of liquid fire in the regions of the air. We should find equal cause of admiration in contemplating the process of the combustion of

It cannot be denied that Herculaneum and Pompeii once stood above the ground, though now the latter is buryed ten or twelve feet deep; the former in no part less than seventy, in some parts a hun

fuel; in the inflammation of a stream of hydrogen gass; in the lava of the skies that streams in fiery meteors to the earth; or in the torrents of liquid fire that belch forth from the yawning mouth of a volcano. The globe of our earth consists of certain proportions of elementary matter, and proportion of the proper constitu­ent elements, forms atmospheric air; a due pro portion of other elements form water, a due proportion of others fire; and certain ratios of various elements, con­stitue the various earths, &c. and these elements are so proportioned, that they shall be a check upon each other, so that one shall not exceed its proper limits of action. And it is so ordained by the wisdom of the Creator, that those portions of compound matter, which are indispensable, and essential to the production, sup­port, and nourishment of life, more especially abound at the surface of the earth: and those which are inimical, and destructive, are removed to remoter regions. Thus air, earth, and water are more immediately essential, and conducive to the existence of animals, arid vegetables; therefore their situations are assigned to reciprocal convenience. Fire is a: secondary convenience to man, its elements therefore are made to consist in a dormant state, at his disposal, and discretion. But the great laboratories of spontaneous fire are removed to a distance from his habitation; locked up in the deep caverns of the earth, or suspended aloft in the regions of the air, and bound in chains of adamant, that they should not disturb the intermediate habitable region. But sometimes the accumulations of their volumes are so great, as to burst the bolts of their imprisonment, and shoot in spouting columns to the skies, or descend in flaming balls to the earth.

The elements of fire may be more abundantly concentred in one district of the globe than another, those districts therefore will be more subject to its concomitant phenomena. This appears to be the case about the mid-districts of the Mediterra­nean, in the neighbourhood of Aetna, and Vesuvius, its two awful and memorable mouths; about the coast of Japan; in the districts of the Andes and Cordileres, of South America; about the sold regions of Iceland; and in the sultry region of Gadaloupe, &c. where fiery eruptions, and earthquakes more frequently occur. But no part of the globe is exempt from its destructive inroads, and sometimes it bursts forth in new district,, without any previous warning, laying waste the habi­tations of man, involving vegetables and animals in promiscuous ruins; alternately heaping up, and levelling huge mountains; presenting new boundaries to the ocean, converting beautiful countries into inhospitable worlds; raising up new islands in the seas; reducing old ones to their bottom; breaking up old continents; and in short, giving a new aspect to nature, like a new creation burying in one fatal moment whole ages of human industry. Such are the dreadful consequences of these tremendous cataracts of fire: but the directions of such mighty revolutions are in the hands of that God who created all worlds, and who alone can controul the raging elements.

The number of volcanos is very great: there are reported considerably more than one hundred. In Eurone there ire, Aetna, Vesuvius, Hecle, Strornboli, Vul­cano; in Asia, one in Mount Tarus, three in Kamtschat Ira, five in Japan, two in the Philippines, and a great number more scattered through the islands in the Sooth sea; in Africa, one in Fez, one in the island of Bourbon, one in Fuego, one of the Cape de Verd Islands; and in America, several in the Andes, Morno Garou in St. Vincent, two in Gaudaloupe, in the West Indies, and two discovered by Capt. Cook on the West Coast of North America. These are those of most note.

dred and twelve. As these were buryed by an eruption of Vesuvius, A. D. 79, it must, be allowed, that whatever matter lies between them and the surface of the earth over them, must have been pro­duced since this time.

Pompeii, being farther off, felt the effects of a single eruption only. It is covered with white pumice stones, mixed with fragments of lava and burnt matter. Over this there is a stratum of good mould, about two feet thick. The shower of pumice stones covered also the town Stabiae, with a tract of country thirty miles in circumference. It is observable, the pavement of the streets of Pompeii is of lava: nay under the foundation of the town, there is a deep stratum of lava and burnt matter: hence it is clear, there have been eruptions before that of 79, the first which is recorded in history.

The matter which covers Herculaneum is not the produce of one eruption only. From the strata of mould intermixed, it appears, that five or six eruptions have taken their course over that which lies immediately above the town, with which tile theatre, and most of the houses tire filled. This is not vitrified lava, but a sort of soft stone, composed of pumice, ashes, and burnt matter, It is of the same nature with what the Italians call tufa, and is in general use for building, and is met with only in those countries that have been subject to subterraneous fires. As water frequently attends erup­tions of fire, doubtless the first matter that issued from Vesuvius, and covered Herculaneum, was in a state of liquid mud.

Braccini descended into the crater (or hollow on the top) of Vesuvius, a, little before the eruption in 1631. He observes, it was then five miles in circumference, and about 1000 paces deep. Its sides were covered with brush-wood, and at the bottom there was a plain on which cattle grazed, and in the midst of this plain was a narrow passage, through which by a winding path he descended among rocks and stones into a more spacious plain, covered with ashes. In this were three little pools, one of hot water, bitter and corrosive beyond measure; another of water saltier than that of the sea ; the third hot, but tasteless.

The great increase of the cone of Vesuvius, from that time to this, naturally induces one to think, that the whole cone was raised in like manner, as was also that part of it now called Somma. It seems, that this was what the ancients termed Vesuvius, and that the conical mountain, at present called by that name, lies been raised by the succeeding eruptions.

From repeated observations, it appears, that all the soil in the neighbourhood of Vesuvius, is composed of different strata of erup­ted matter, to a great depth below the level of the sea. And un­doubtedly this volcano took its rise from the bottom of the sea.

The soil from Capreae to Naples is of the same sort. And that on which Naples stands, has been evidently produced by explosions, some of them on the very spot whereon the city is built. All the high grounds round it, with the islands of Prochyta and Ischia, ap­pear likewise to have been raised in the same manner.

Such wonderful operations of nature, are certainly intended for some great purpose. They are not confined to one country; volca­nos exist in the four quarters of the globe. We see the fertility of the soil occasioned thereby, in what was thence called Campania Felix. The same is evident in Sicily, justly esteemed one of the most fertile spots in the world. May not subterraneous fire be considered as the great plough (if we may be allowed the expres­sion) which nature makes use of to turn up the bowels of the earth, and afford us fresh fields to work upon, when the former are exhaus­ted? Perhaps, likewise, many precious minerals might have remained unknown to us, had it not been for these operations of nature.

There is great reason to believe that the whole island of Madeira was at some remote period thrown up by the explosion of subter­raneous lire, as every stone, whether whole or in fragments, that is seen upon it, appears to have been burnt; and even the sand itself to be nothing more than ashes. And it is certain, that part of the country near the sea is a very exact specimen of the rest.

7. Near Puzzuolo lies Monte Secco, which is Vesuvius in minia­ture. Its summit, formerly a cone, is now sunk into a concave oval, whose shortest diameter is about one thousand feet. the long­est, one thousand two hundred and forty-six. It is generally known by the name of Solfatara. Though Vesuvius is twelve miles distant, yet they have a communication with each other. Hence the subter­raneous fire is quiet at Solfatara, when it has a vent at Vesuvius : whereas the heat at the former increases, when the latter is at rest.

On this mountain are many cracks emitting smoke; the heat issu­ing from them is sometimes insupportable. Hold a piece of iron over one of these cracks, and a sweetish fluid will drop from it: but a piece of paper, instead of being moistened, grows quite dry and still. The stones near these cracks are in continual motion ; and small stones dropped into them are ejected to the height of twelve feet, like the ponderous masses from Vesuvius. In some places the sand, by the force of the vapours, springs up and down like the sparkling of cider.

Out of Solfatara they extract besides sulphur, blue vitriol, and the best kind of alum. The large leaden kettles used therein, are not heated by a culinary fire, but by the natural heat, issuing through holes in the ground, over which the vessels are placed,

8.Not far from Puzzuolo is Monte Nuovo, which rose suddenly in the night, between the 19th and 20th of September, 1636. During a dreadful earthquake, that laid the whole neighbourhood in ‘ruins, the subterraneous fire opening a large chasm in the ground, threw out such quantities of stones, ashes, bitumen and sand, as in twenty-four hours formed this mountain. Its perpendicular height is 400 rods, its circuit three miles. The edge of the first aperture is still visible, a mile in circuit, though it is now entirely filled up.

9.An event similar to this occurred more lately. After a shock of the earth, there was seen from Santorini, (an island in the Archi­pelago, on the coast of Natolia) on the 23d of May, 1707, as it were a floating rock. Some were so bold, as to go down upon it, even while it was rising under their feet. The earth of it was very light, and contained a small quantity of potter’s clay. It increased daily, till it was half a mile in circumference, and twenty or twenty­five feet high. ,At this time a great ridge of rocks, dark and black, rose out of the sea, and joined to the new island. Then there issued out of it a thick smoke, with a noise like constant thundering, or a discharge of many cannon at once. The sea water continually bubbled up; and in a short time the new land presented nothing to view for whole nights, but a great number of stoves, which cast forth flames, with showers of ashes, and innumerable small stones, red hot. Rocks were also darted out of these burning furnaces, which mounted up like bombs. This continued till November.

There is likewise an island among the Azores, which had the game originial. On the night between the 7th and 8th of December, 1720 there was felt a shock of an earthquake at Tercera: and, presently after an island rose, from the midst of boiling hot water. it was nearly round, and high enough to be seen seven or eight leagues off. But after a little while it sunk, till it became level with the water.

10. On June 4th, 1693, the mountain on the island Torca, in the East Indies, began about daybreak to cast out more fire than usual, which continued five or six days., till at last it poured forth, not only a prodigious name, but likewise such a black and sulphurous vapour, that the inhabitants of Hislo (a village in the western part of the island, and nearest to the opening) were wholly covered by it. Quickly followed a stream of burning brimstone, which consumed many that could not escape. Afterwards the inhabitants perceived a great part of the mountain was sunk down. Another part sunk three or four days after, and so from time to time, till the burning lake covered near half the island. Wherefore they went on board their boats : from whence they perceived huge. pieces of the mountain fill into the fiery lake, with a prodigious noise, as if a whole bat­tery of cannon was discharged. The inhabitants of another town on the east side of the island, not thinking themselves in so great dan­ger, remained a month longer. But the fiery lake approaching nearer and nearer, so that there was no doubt but it would swallow up the whole island, they too fled for their lives, and arrived at Amboyna, July the 18th, 1693 .

In the mountains of Ternata, a terrible noise is continually heard. The fire frequently casts out stones, and lies exceeding deep. Probably the burning mountains in the Molucca islands are consumed beneath by the same fire. Manilla is one of the largest of the Phillippine islands. The city is much larger than Oxford, is an university, and is inhabited only by Spaniards. The houses are large, and built very strong. The lower walls are stone, and of a prodigious thickness. All above is wood, and every piece of timber has a connexion with the others, and all are joined together, that the earthquakes, which are very frequent, may not throw them down. In 1750, they had an earthquake with almost continual tremblings for three months., Then followed an eruption in a small island, surrounded by a large lake, which is unfathomable. The third day after the eruption began, there arose in the lake four more small islands, all burning. About a mile from one of these, there is a fire rising continually of the water, in a part where there is no ground for above a hundred fathoms.

11. A particular account of a journey to Mount Hecla, is given by a late author. We travelled, says he, two days in rugged and unfre­quented roads. Then we came within six miles of the mountain, and perceived the ground strewed with ashes and pumice stone, over which we passed to the foot of it. The weather being serene and calm, and no flames issuing out of the volcano, we resolved to get to the top; till being informed by our guides, that if we went any further we should be in danger of falling into pits, where we might be suffoca­ted by the fumes rising Out of the earth, all my company declined it. I told them, if they would stay for me, I would go alone. They promised they would. So I alighted and prepared to go up, when one of them offered to go up with me.

Having given our horses to our guides, who stayed with the rest of our company, we ventured forward, resolving to reach the top, and in a short time saw a large flight of crows and vultures, that had their nests in the top of the mountain. Having ascended about half a league, we felt the ground shake under us, and heard a terrible noise in the bowels of the earth, just as if it were going to burst open. At the same time there appeared on all sides chinks, out of which issued bluish flames, with a strong suffocating smell. This made us turn back, for fear of’ being burnt to ashes. But we had scarce proceeded thirty yards back, before a black cloud of smoke ascended out of the mountain, obscured the light of the sun, and covered us so thick, that we could not see. each ether. Our fears increased every step we took: for behind us name flames of fire, with showers of ashes and pumice stones, which fell’ as thick as hail. This dreadful storm was attended with horrible noises, and we expected every moment, that earth would open and swallow us up. This added wings to our flight, so that in a quarter of an hour we got to the bottom of the mountain.

There are volcanos likewise in many of the American islands: and a very eminent one in Gaudaloupe. The summit of this con­stantly emits smoke, and sometimes flames. It rises very high, in the form of a cone, above the chain of mountains that occupy the centre of the island. Near ‘the foot of it there are springs, the water of which are so hot as to boil eggs in three minutes. The neighbouring ground smokes, and is full of brown earth like the dross of iron. But he chief place where the smoke issues out, is higher up at the foot of a steep bank, about fifty yards in breadth. Here no grass is to be seen; ‘nothing but sulphur and calcined earth. The ground is full of deep cracks, which emit much smoke, and where you may hear the sulphur boil. But the stench of it is intolerable. The ground is loose,’ so that you may thrust a cane up to the head. And when you draw it up, it will be as hot as if you had plunged it into slacking lime.

On the plain top of the hill is another funnel, that opened some years since, and emits nothing but smoke. Here are abundance of large and deep chinks, which doubtless burned in former times. In the middle of this plain is a very deep abyss. It is said there was Once, a great earthquake in the island, and that the Brimstone Hill (so they call it)’ then took tire. It was probably then this abyss was opened. It is between two crags that rise above the mountain, and on the north side answers to the great cleft, which goes down above a thousand feet perpendicular, is more than twenty feet broad, and pene­trates above a hundred paces in the flat. So that in this place the mountain is fairly split, from the top down to the basis of the cone.

On this plain you may see the clouds gather below, and hear the thunder rumble under your feet. The great cavern is under the cleft, and was doubtless formed by the same earthquake that split the mountain in two parts nearly equal. The parting goes north and south. To the north is the cleft and cavern, in the middle the abyss. and to the south the burning gulph, The cavern is about twenty-five feet wide, as much in height, and about sixty paces deep. Within this is a second cave, about sixty feet in length, as much in breadth, and forty in height. Here the heat is moderate: but there is a third cave within this, where it is so hot, that a torch will give no light therein, and a man can scarce fetch breath. Yet on the left is a great. hollow, which is sufficiently cool. And the space of one fathom makes the difference. It seems strange, that in the same cave, three hundred feet under ground it should be so hot on one side, and so cool on the other. Perhaps the cool side has some vent into the great cleft, and receives fresh air thereby. ‘

13. Another surprising eminence, which may be ranked among burn­ing mountains, is the Peak of Teneriffe. On the summit of it is a hollow, twelve or fourteen feet deep: the sides sloping down to the bottom, form a cavity like a truncated cone, with its base uppermost. This cavity is nearly circular, about forty fathoms across. The ground is very hot, and from nearly twenty vents, issues a smoke of a strong sulphurous smell. The whole soil seems powered with brim­stone, which forms a beautifully coloured surface. Almost all the stones thereabouts are of a greenish colour, sparkling with yellow. like gold. On the middle of one of the rocks is. a hole, about two inches in diamater. Hence proceeds a noise like that of a great body’ of liquors boiling very strongly. And so hot a steam comes from it, as will burn the hand, even at a quarter of a yard’s distance.

A small part of the sugar-loaf is white like lime; another small part is covered with salt. But the far greatest part is covered with snow, almost throughout the year.

The accounts given of its height are exceeding various. But a gentleman some years ago, who measured it exactly, found a perpen­dicular height to be two thousand five hundred and sixty-six fathoms.

14. When it happens that any inflammable substance takes fire in the caverns of the earth, the air contained therein is rarefied and exploded with an immense force. Hereby not only the arch which covers it, but the whole body of incumbent earth is shaken. And this is one species of earthquakes. In this case, the deeper the cavern is, and the larger the quantity of matter which takes tire, the more exten­sive and the more violent the earthquake. If the cavern is near the surface of the earth, the tire often issues out of it: and the lower parts being eaten away, the ground sinks in, and swallows up houses or whole cities.

But, to consider this point a little more minutely. As some earth­quakes are owing to tire, so are some to air, others to water, and others to earth itself. 1. The earth itself may be the occasion of its own shaking, when the root or basis of some large mass being worn away, the mass sinks in by its own weight, and causes a concus­sion of all the neighbouring parts. 2. Subterraneous waters wash way the foundations of hills, and eat far under the earth. By this means many earthquakes have been occasioned, and whole cities swallowed up. This was undoubtedly the cause of the great earth­quake at Port Royal, and of that which swallowed up Lima. 3. Air pent up in the bowels of the earth, if it be at any time rarefied and expanded will struggle for vent with incredible force, and thereby and tear the earth. 4. But the usual cause of the most violent earthquakes, is sulphur, or some other inflammable matter taking fire in the cavities of the earth, and bursting through whatever

There are scarce any countries that are much subject to earth­quakes, which have not some burning mountain. And whenever any earthquake happens, this is constantly in flames. Indeed were it nut that these vents thus disgorge the fire, it would make far greater havoc than it does ; probably it would make the whole country for a vast space round quite uninhabitable. Yea, so beneficial are these, that we do not want instances of countries frequently annoyed by earthquakes, winch, upon the breaking out of a volcano, bare been wholly delivered them.

Perhaps what causes most earthquakes of this kind, is the pyrites, or iron stone, which will take fire of itself. The earth, we know, in cavities, which are at certain times full of inflammable vapours. This the damps in mines show, which being fired, do every thing as in an earthquake, only in a less degree. And the pyrites only, of all known minerals, yields this inflammable vapour. Nor is any mineral or ore, however sulphurous, but what is more or less mixed with the pyrites. But probably the pyrites of the burning mountains, is more sulphurous than ours. It is likewise in far greater quantities in all the countries round the Mediterranean than in England: a plain rea­son why earthquakes are so much more frequent and more violent there. All artificial earthquake may be made thus: add twenty pounds of twenty of iron filings; mix and temper these with water, so as to form a mass of the consistence of a firm paste bury this three or four feet under ground. In six or seven hours time, the earth will bean to tremble, crack and smoke, and fire and flame will burst through. So that there only wants a sufficient quantity of this mat­ter to produce a true Aetna. lf it were supposed to burst out under the ads, it might occasion a new island.

To explain this point a little farther. This globe of earth is bored through with infinite cavities, which branching out like the veins, arteries and nerves, in our bodies, pass under the very bottom of the some of them serve to convey water, others a more unctuous substance, others an ingenious matter, that gives motion to the whole frame.

Thus the exterior sea communicates with the inmost abyss, and passes to the roots of the hills and mountains. Mean time a constant air or wind, forces the water into the dark caverns, and receives and keeps alive a perpetual fire.

Have we not indubitable examples of these things ? Does not the vast river Wolga, pour such a quantity of water into the Caspian within the space of one year, as would be sufficient, were there not some invisible outlet, to cover the whole earth. This invisible outlet is a huge cavern that passes under Mount Caucasus into the Euxine Sea. Hereby the waters of the one sea, discharge themselves into the other. And the whole kingdoms of Georgia and Mengrelia, are as it were •a bridge over those subterraneous waters.

When the Caspian Sea has been, on occasion of winds, too much emptied into the Euxine, it is. replenished from the Persian Gulf, which is a kind of reservoir for it. And the subterraneous communication between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, is now out of all dis­pute.

And how many instances of this have we in rivers ? So late geographers assure us, that the river Niger in Africa is derived from the river Nile, under the mighty chain of mountains of Nubia; on the western side of which mountains, it takes the name of Niger, and continues its course into the Atlantic ocean. So the vast and deep cave in Mount Taurus, receives the Tigris, and gives it a passage to the other side. The same river afterward hides itself under the ground, for near twelve miles, and then breaking out again, disembodies into the Euphrates, near Babylon.

To come nearer home ; the Guardiana, that runs between Spain and Portugal, runs thirty-two miles under ground. Yea, in our own country, the Mole in Surry, falls into the ground near Boxhill, and rises again at a considerable distance.

Hence we may safely collect, that the earth is filled with subterra­neous aqueducts and caverns, full of air and vapour, and copious ex­halations from aal sorts of minerals, as well as water.

Besides these cavities, there are mountains whose bowels are in a continual flame. And their belching out ashes, smoke, broken rocks and minerals, argues vast vacuities, and huge magazines of com­bustible matter which are lodged therein. In the chain of mountains called the Andes in America, there are no less than fifteen volcanos, ‘by whose burnings, caverns as big as whole kingdoms are made, and receive the cataracts of mighty rivers. And not only here, but over all the earth there are so many channels, clefts, and caverns, that we do not know when or where we stand upon good ground. Indeed it might amaze men of a stout heart, could they see into the world beneath their feet, view the dark recesses of nature, and observe the strongest buildings stand upon art immense vault, at the bottom of which runs an unfathomable sea, and whose upper hollows are filled with stagnating air, and the expirations of sulphurous and bituminous matter.

Therefore, as there are no large tracts of land without volcanos and sulphurous caverns; from which branching into smaller pipes, the subterraneous heat is conveyed throughout the earth: so no country promise itself an entire immunity from earthquakes: even were there no other cause of these dreadful events, but subterraneous. Especially, when it is considered, that the earth is in one part impregnated with sulphur, in others with nitre, alum, vitriol, mercury, bitumen, ochre, and chalks. For if an artificial powder, made only of nitre, sulphur, and charcoal, has so wonderful affects, what force must that combustible matter have, which arises from sulphur, nitre, salammoniac, bitumen, gold, copper, iron, arsenic, mercury, and other metallic and mineral spirits, with which the womb of the earth abounds’, when the subterraneous fires break through into the hollow vaults, where these are reposited by the Cod of nature Then, according to the copiousness of these combustibles, and the more or less firmness of the superincumbent earth, these fires cause tremblings and concussions, or violent eruptions : and perhaps open wide and. deep gulfs wherein whole cities, yea, mountains are swallowed up.

*Many ingenious hypotheses have been framed, and alternately advocated and rejected respecting the cause of earthquakes. Anaxagoras ascribed it to the bursting of subterraneous clouds. which shook the vaults which confined them. Some have ascribed it to vacuums occasioned by the instantaneous decom­position of volumes of subterraneous gasses; others, to the rarefied steam of aqueous matter, heated by contiguous fires: while others have attributed it, with more apparent plausibility, to inflammable exhalations. This hypothesis has been adopted by some of the more modem and most celebrated philosophers, among whom we find recorded the names of Gassendus, Kercher, Schottos, Varenius Des Cartes, Du Hamel, Honorius, Fabri, &c. the last of whom, indeed, sup. posed that water prodigiously rarefied by heat, might sometimes occasion earth­ quakes: the others supposed there were many cavities within the earth, communicating and charged with different vapours, originating from their various contents; as water, nitre, bitumen, sulphur, &c. The latter doctrine appeared to be confirmed by various experiments, such as mixtures of iron filings and brimstone, and gunpowder, confined in pits, &c. But these inferences were from too superficial considerations. The authors and advocates of the doc­trine did not take into the general review the incontestable fact, that these explosions merely had relation to the degrees of resistance of the superincumbent medium in which they occurred: they did not recollect at the time, that these explosions could not take place in vacuo, that they could not take place in a degree of rarefication equal to the power of expansion, and that the violence of the explosion, depended on the degree of resistance of the opposing medium; otherwise, the reflections would have led them on in a regular train, to develope more obvious causes.

These several hypotheses were at length abandoned, to make room for another, of still more apparent plausibility, it was derived from a consideration of the progressive gradations of density, from the surface towards the centre of the earth, and according to the philosophical principles, which supposes the atmos­phere to be about 45 miles in height, and that the density of the air increases, in proportion to the absolute height of the superincumbent column of fluid: whence it is shown, that the depth of 43,528 fathoms below the surface of the earth, the air is but One fourth lighter than mercury: and this depth being only a 74th part

Many such instances occur in history. Pliny tells us, that in his own time, the mountain Cymbotus, with the town of Eurites, which stood on its side, were totally swallowed up. He records the like of the city of Tantelis in Magnesia, and after it, of the mountain Sopelus, both absorbed by a violent opening of the earth, so that no trace of either remained. Galanis and Garnatus, towns once famous in Phoenicia, are recorded to have met the same fate. Yea, the vast promon­tory, called Phelegium, in Ethiopia, after a violent earthquake in the night, was not to be seen in the morning, the earth having swallowed it up and turned over it.

Some instances we have of later date. The mountain Picus, in one of the Moiuccas, was so high that it appeared at a vast distance, and served as a landmark to sailors. But during an earthquake in the isle, the mountain in an instant sunk into the bowels of the earth; and no token of it remained, but a vast lake of water. The like happened in the mountainous parts of China, in 1556: when a whole province, with all its towns, cities, and inhabitants, was absorbed in a moment; an immense lake of water remaining in its place, even to this day.

In the year 1546, during the terrible earthquake in the kingdom of Chili, several whole mountains of the Andes, one after another, were

of the semidiameter of the earth, it would follow, that the air in the vast sphere below this depth, consisting of 6,451,538 fathoms, would become exceedingly con­densed, and much heavier than the heaviest bodies we know in nature; and it is found by experiment, that the more air is compressed, the more does the same de­gree of heat, increase its spring, and the more capable does it render it, of violent effects. The degree of heat of boiling water, in the degree of density at the sur­face of the earth, increases the spring of the air, by a quantity equal to a third of the weight wherewith it was pressed, and this degree of heat, which would only produce a moderate effect in that degree of density, would be capable of the most violent effects below. It is certain, there are more violent degrees of heat, than that of boiling water, and it is possible, there may be some, whose violence, fur­ther increased by the immense weight of air, may be sufficient to break and over­turn, this solid orb of 43,528 fathoms, the weight of which, would be but a trifle, to the expanding force of the included air.

This doctrine, however, soon gave way, and yielded to one of a more specious kind, and which substituted electricity as the formidable agent; but this met with a host of objections. .

By pursuing the train of reflections held out in a former paragraph, we should be led to the following conclusion: that all earthquakes are occasioned by an excessive accumulation of voluminous matter, in the bowels of the earth; that could the earth yield to its volume, the phenomena of vibration and explosion, could not take place; that the violence of the shocks, will be in proportion to the degrees of compression, to which the volumes are subjected, or to the degree of resistance opposed to their currents; that should the volumes of matter find a passage longitudinally through the strata of the earth, it would consequently occa­sion a vibration of its surface; and this we call earthquake, or a tremulous motion of the earth. We should be led to conclude, that the accumulated matter is a compound, whose bulk is increased by union, and that when it is disgorged from its bed, it travels irresistibly, to find a place where it can repose in quiet.

wholly absorbed in the earth. Probably many lakes, of whose begin­ning we have no account, were occasioned by the like absorbtions.

The greatest earthquake we find in antiquity is that mentioned by Pliny in which twelve cities in Asia Minor were swallowed up in one night But one of those most particularly described in history is that the year 1693. It extended to a circumference of two thousand hundred leagues, chiefly affecting the sea coasts and great rivers. Its motions were so rapid, that those who lay at their length were tossed from side to side as upon a rolling billow. The walls were dashed from their foundations, and no less than fifty-four cities, with an incre­dible number of villages, were either destroyed or greatly damaged. the city of Catanea, in particular, was utterly overthrown. A travel­ who was on his way thither, at the distance of some miles perceived a black cloud hanging near the place. The sea all of a sudden began to roam. omit Etna to send forth great spires of flame; and soon after shock ensued, with a noise as if all the artillery m the world had been at once discharged. Our traveller being obliged to alight, instantly felt himself raised a foot from the ground, and turning his eyes to the city, saw nothing but a thick cloud of dust in the air. Although the shock ‘did not continue above three minutes, yet near nineteen thou­sand of the inhabitants of Sicily perished in the ruins.

The following account of a dreadful earthquake at Calabria, in 1638, is related by the celebrated father Kircher, as it happened while he was on his journey to Mount AEtna.

"Having hired a boat, in company with four more, we launched on the 24th of March, from the harbour of Messina, and arrived the same day at the promontory of Polorus Our destination was for the city of Euphaemia, in Calabria But though we often put to sea, we were as often driven back.’ At length, however, we ventured forward. Pro­ceeding onward, and turning my eyes to Aetna, I saw it cast forth large volumes of smoke, which entirely covered the whole island. This, together with the dreadful noise, tilled me with apprehension.. The sea itself began to wear a very unusual appearance, covered all over with bubbles. My surprise was increased by the calmness of the weather. I therefore warned my companions that an earthquake was approaching, and making for the shore with all possible speed, we landed at Tropae. But we had scarce arrived at the Jesuit’s college, in that city, when our ears were stunned with a horrid sound, resem­bling that of an infinite number of chariots driven fiercely forward, the wheels rattling and the thongs cracking. Soon after the whole tract upon which we stood, seemed to vibrate, as if we were in the scale ‘of a balance that continued wavering. This soon grew more violent, and being no longer able to keep my legs, I was thrown pros­trate upon the ground. In the mean time, the universal ruin round me, redoubled my amazement. The crash of falling houses, the totter­ing of towers, and the groans of the dying, all contributed to raise my terror. On every side of me I saw nothing but a scene of ruin, dan­ger threatening wherever I could fly. I recommended myself to God as my last refuge. At that hour, 0 how vain was every sublu­nary happiness! Wealth, honour, empire, wisdom, all mere useless sounds, and as empty as the bubbles on the deep. Just standing on the threshold of eternity, nothing but God was my pleasure, and the nearer I approached, I only loved him the more. After some time, however, I resolved to venture for safety, and running as fast as I could, reached the shore. I did not search long, till I found the boat in which I had landed my companions also. Our meeting was all silence, and gloomy dread of impending terrors.

Leaving this seat of desolation, we prosecuted our voyage, and the next day landed at Rochetta, although the earth still continued in vio­lent agitations. But we were scarce arrived at our inn, when we were obliged to return to the boat, and in about a half an hour, we saw the greatest part of the town, and the inn at which we had put up, dashed to the ground, and burying all its inhabitants beneath its ruins. Proceeding onward in our little vessel, finding no safety at land, and yet having but a very dangerous continuance at sea, we at length landed at Lipizium, a castle midway between Trapae and Euphaemia. Here, wherever I turned my eyes, nothing but scenes of ruin and horror appeared; towns and castles levelled to the ground Strombalo, though at sixty miles distance, belching forth flames in an unusual manner. But my attention was quickly turned to nearer danger. The rumbling sound of an earthquake alarmed us. It every moment seemed to grow louder, and to approach more near. The place on which we stood, now began to shake most dreadfully, so that being unable to stand, my companions and I caught hold of the shrubs near us, and supported ourselves in that manner.

After some time this shock ceasing, we stood up in order to go to Euphaemia, that lay within sight. In the mean time, I turned my eyes towards the city, but could see only a dark cloud resting upon the place. This the more surprised us, as the weather was so serene. We waited till the cloud was passed away, then looking for the city, it was totally sunk. Nothing but a putrid lake was seen where it stood. We looked about for some one that could tell us the sad catastrophe, but could see none. All was become a melancholy solitude, a scene of hideous desolation. Such was the fate of the city of Euphaemia, and as we continued our melancholy course along the shore, the whole coast, for the space of two hundred miles, presented nothing but the remains of cities. Proceeding thus along, we at length ended our distressful voyage, by arriving at Naples.

15. Of the great earthquake at Port Royal, in Jamaica, an eye-wit.. ness writes thus. It happened on July 7, 1692, just before noon, and in the sp ace of two minutes, shook down and drowned nine-tenths of the town. The houses sunk outright thirty or forty fathom. The earth opened and swallowed up the people in one street, and threw them up in another; some rose in the middle of the harbour. While houses on one side of a street where swallowed up, those on the other side where thrown on heaps. The sand in the street rising like waves in the sea, lifted up every one that stood upon it. Then suddenly sinking into pits, the water broke out, and rolled them over and over. Sloops and ships in the harbour were overset and lost; the Swan frigate was driven over the tops of many houses. All this was attended with a hollow rumbling noise. In less than a minute, three quarters of the houses, with their inhabitants, were all sunk under water: and the little part which remained was no better than a heap of rubbish. The shock threw people down on their knees, or their faces, as they ran about to look for shelter. Several houses, which were left standing, were removed some yards out of their places. One whole street was made twice as broad as before. In many places the earth cracked, opened and shut, with a motion quick and fast. And two or three hundred of these openings might be seen at a time. In some of these people were swallowed up, in others caught by the middle and pressed to death. In others the heads of men only appeared, in which condition dogs came and ate them. Out of some of these openings, whole rivers of water spouted up a prodigious height: and out of all the wells the water flew, with a surprising violence The whole was attended with a noisome stench, and the noise of falling mountains at a distance, while the sky in a minute’s time turned dull and reddish, like a glowing oven. And yet more houses were left standing at Port Royal, than in all the island beside. Scarce a planter’s house or sugar work was lea throughout all Jamaica. A great part of them was swallowed up, frequently houses, People and trees at one gap, in the room of which there afterward appeared a large pool of water. This, when dried up, discovered nothing but sand, without any mark that house or tree had been there. Two thousand people lost their lives: bad it been in the night, few would have escaped. A thousand acres of land were sunk: one plantation was removed half a mile from its place. Yet the shocks were most violent among the mountains. Not far from Yallhouse, part of a mountain, after it had made several leaps, overwhelmed a whole family, and great part of a plantation, though a mile distant. A large mountain, near Port Morant, about a day’s journey over, was quite swallowed up, and in the place where it stood, remained a lake, four or five leagues over. Vast pieces of mountains, with all the trees thereon, falling together in a confused manner. stopped up most of the rivers, tilt swelling abroad, they made themselves new channels, tearing up every thing that opposed their passage, carrying with them, into the sea, such prodigious quantities of timber that they seemed like moving islands. In Liquania, the sea retiring from the land, left the ground dry for two or three hundred yards. But it re turned in a minute or two, and overflowed a great part of the shore. Those who escaped from the town, got on board the ships in the har­bour, where many continued two months : the shocks all the time being so violent that they durst not come on shore. The noisome vapours occasioned a general sickness, which swept away three thou­sand of those that were left.

The following account of this memorable event is given by the rector of Port Royal.

On Wednesday, June 7, I had been reading prayers, (which I have read every day since I came to Port Royal, to keep up some show of religion amongst the most ungodly people) am] was gone to the presi­dent of the counsel. We had scarce dined, when I felt the ground heave and roll under me. I said, Sir, what is this ?“ He replied composedly, It is an earthquake. Be not afraid ; it will soon be over.” But it increased more and more : and presently we heard the church and the tower fall. Upon this we ran to save ourselves; I quickly lost him and run towards Morgan’s Fort: as that was a wide open place. and secure from the falling of houses. As I ran, I saw the earth open, and swallow up multitudes of people, and the sea mount­ing over the fortifications. I then laid aside all thought of escape, and went homeward to meet death in as good a posture as I could. I was forced to go through two or three narrow streets, the houses fell on each side of me. Some bricks came rolling over my shoes, but none hurt me. When I came to my lodgings, I found all things in the same order that 1 left them. I went to the balcony, and saw that no houses in our street were fallen. The people seeing me, cried to me, to come and pray with them. When I came into the street, every one laid hold of my clothes and embraced me. I desired them to kneel down in a ring, and prayed with them near an hour, till I was almost spent, between the exercises, and the heat of the sun. They then brought me a chair, the earth working all the time, like the rolling of the sea, insomuch, that sometimes while I Was at prayers, I could hardly keep on nay knees. By the time I had been half an hour longer with them, inn setting their sins before them, and exhorting them to repentance, some merchants came, and desired me to go on board one of the ships in the harbour. From the top of some houses, which lay level with the water, I got into a boat, and went on board the Siam Merchant. The day when this happened was exceeding clear, and afforded no suspicion of evil. But about half an hour past eleven, in less than three minutes. Port Royal. one of the fairest towns inn the English plantations, was shattered in pieces, and left a dreadful monument of the justice of God.

About ten years after the town was rebuilt, a terrible fire laid it in ashes. Yet they rebuilt it once more. But in the year 1722, a hurricane reduced it a third time to a heap of rubbish. Warned by these extraordinary calamities, which seemed to mark it out as a devo ted spot, they removed the public offices from thence, and forbade any market to be held there for the future,

16.Lima, in Peru, contains about 60,000 persons, in 1747, an earthquake quake laid three-fourths of the city level with the ground.

17. Calloa, the port of Lima, containing or 4000 inhabitants, was totally destroyed. Only one man escaped, and that by a very singu lar providence. He was going to strike the flag on the fort, that over­looked the harbour, when he saw the sea retire to a considerable distance and then return, swelling mountains high. The inhabitants ran from their houses in the utmost degree of terror and confusion. A cry for mercy arose from all parts: and immediately all was silent, the sea had quite overwhelmed the city, and buryed it for ever in its bosom. But at the same time it drove a little boat to the side of the fort, into which the man leaped and was saved.

18. Perhaps we have not in history, many more remarkable de­liverances than of this good man, But more remarkable, if possible, is the following deliverance, from a danger of a very different kind.

In the neighbourhood of Demoate as one descends through the up- valley of Stura, towards the middle of the mountain, there were some houses in a place called Bergemolletto, which on the 19th of March , in the morning (there being then a great deal of snow) were entirely overwhelmed by two vast bodies of snow, that tumbled . town from the upper Alps., All the inhabitants were then in their houses, except one Joseph Rochia, a man of about 50. Two and twenty persons were buried under this mass of snow, which was sixty English. feet in height. Many were ordered to give them assis­tance; but were not’ able to do them the least service. After five days, Joseph Rochia got upon the snow, (with his son, and two broth. era of his wife) to try if they could find the place under which his house and stable were buried; but they could not, However, the month of April proving very hot, and the snow beginning to melt, this unfortunate man was again encouraged to use his best endeavours, the 24th the snow was greatly diminished, and he conceived of finding out his house by breaking tine ice. He thrust down a long pole, but the evening coming on, he proceeded no farther. His wife's brother dreamed the same night, that his sister was still alive, and begged him to help her. He rose early in the morning, told his dream to Joseph and his neighbours, and went with them to work upon the snow. where they made another opening, which led them to the house they searched for: but finding no dead bodies in its ruins, they sought for the stable, which was about 240 English feet distant, and having found it, they heard a cry of help my dear brother.” Being greatly surprised as well as encouraged by these words, they laboured till they had made a large opening, through which the brother went down, where the sister, with a feeble voice told him, I have always trusted in God and you, that you would not forsake me.” The other brother and the husband then went down, and found still alive the wife about 45, the sister about 35, and a daughter about 13 years of age. These they raised on their shoulders to men above, who pulled them up, and carried them to a neighbouring house; they were unable to walk, and so wasted,. that they appeared like mere shadows.

Some days after the intendant came to see them, and they gave him the account that follows. In the morning of the 19th of March, we were in the stable, with a boy six years old, and a girl about 13. In the same stable were six goats, one of which had brought forth two dead kids the evening before; there were also an ass and five or six fowls. We were sheltering ourselves in a corner of the stable, till the church bell should ring, intending to attend the service. The wife wanting to go out of the stable to kindle a fire for her husband, then clearing away the snow from the top of the house, she perceived a mass of snow breaking down towards the east, on which she went back into the stable, shut the door, and told her sister of it. In less than three minutes they heard the roof break over their heads, and also part of the ceiling of the stable. The sister advised her to get into the rack and manger, which she did very carefully. The ass was tied to the manger, but got loose by struggling; and though it did not break the manger, it threw down the little vessel which the sister took up, and used afterwards to hold the melted snow, which served them for drink. Very happily, the manger was under the main prop of the stable, and thereby resisted the weight of the snow, Their first care was to know what they had to eat: the sister had in her pockets fifteen chesnuts; the children said they had break­fasted, and should want no. more that day. They remembered there were 30 or 40 loaves in a place near the stable, and endeavoured to get at them but were not able, by reason of the snow. On this they called out for help as loudly as they could, but no one heard them. The. sister came again to the manger, after she had tried in vain to get at the loaves, gave two chesnuts to the wife and eat two herself, and they drank some snow water. All this while the ass continued kick­ing, and the goats bleated very much, but soon after, they heard no­thing more of them. Two of the goats however were left alive, and were near the manger; they felt them carefully, and knew by so do­ing, that one of them was big, and would kid about the middle of April; the other gave milk, wherewith they preserved their lives,

The women affirmed, that during all the time they were buried, they saw not one ray of light; nevertheless, for about twenty days. They had some notion of night and day: for when the fowls crowed, they imagined it was break of day, but at last the fowls died; The second day, being very hungry, they ate all the remaining chesnuts, and drank what milk the goat yielded, which for the first days was near two pounds a day, but the quantity -decreased gradually. The being very hungry, they again endeavoured to get to the place where the loaves were, but they could not penetrate to it. Then resolved to take all possible care to feed the goats, as very fortunately over the ceiling of the stable, and just above the manger, there was a hay-loft with a hole, through which the hay was put down into the rack. This opening was near the sister, who pulled down the hay, and gave it to the goats, as long as she could reach it, which when she could no longer do, the goats climbed upon her shoulders, and reached it themselves. On the sixth day the boy sickened, complaining of violent pains in the stomach for six days, on the last of which, he desired his mother, who all this time had held him in her lap, to lay him at his length in the manger. She did so and taking him by the hand, felt it was very cold: she then put his to her mouth, and finding it likewise very cold, she gave him a little milk; the boy cried, 0 my father in the snow! Oh! father!” and. expired.