Thus having given an Account of the Seven Wonders of the World, let us take a View of the Burning Mountains, or Volcanos, called Mount Vesuvius and Mount Ætna; than which there is, perhaps, nothing in the whole Course of Nature more worthy our Notice [sic] , or so capable of raising our Admiration; and which, when considered in a religious sense, may, with Justice, be said to be one of the wonderful Works of GOD.
MOUNT VESUVIUS stands about six miles from the city of Naples, and on the side of the Bay towards the East. The plains round it form a beautiful prospect, and on one side are seen fruitful trees of different kinds, and vineyards that produce the most excellent wine; but when one ascends higher, on the side which looks to the South, the face of things is entirely changed, and one sees a tract of ground, which presents only images of horror, viz. a desolate country covered with ashes, pumice-stones, and cinders; together with rocks burned up with the fire, and split into dreadful precipices. It is reckoned four miles high, and the top of it is a wide naked plain, smoking with sulphur in many places; in the midst of which plain stands another high hill, in the shape of a sugar-loaf, on the top of which is a vast mouth or cavity, that goes shelving down on all sides about a hundred yards deep, and about four hundred over; from whence proceeds a continual smoke, and sometimes those astonishing and dreadful eruptions of flame, ashes, and burning matter, that fill the inhabitants around with consternation, and bear down and destroy all before it. Among the many eruptions which it has had, at different times, we need instance only one, which happened on the fifth of June, 1717, and is thus related by Mr. Edward Berkley, who was present at the time, in his letter to Dr. Arbuthnot in England, viz. That he with much difficulty, reached the top of Vesuvius on the 17th of April, 1717, where says he, I saw a vast aperture full of smoke, and heard within that horrid gulph certain odd sounds, as it were murmuring, sighing, throbbing, churning, dashing of waves; and, between while, a noise like that of thunder or cannon, attended constantly, from the belly of the mountain, with a clattering like that of tiles falling from the tops of houses into a street. After an hour's stay, the smoke being moved by the wind, I could discern two furnaces, almost contiguous; one on the left, which seemed to be about three yards diameter, glowed with red flames, and threw up red hot stones with a hideous noise, which, as they fell back, caused the fore-mentioned clattering.
On May 8, ascending to the top of Vesuvius, I had a full prospect of the crater, which appeared to be about a mile in circumference, and a hundred yards deep, with a conical mount in the middle of the bottom, made of stones thrown up and fallen back again into the crater: And the left-hand furnace, mentioned before, threw up every three or four minutes, with a dreadful bellowing, a vast number of red hot stones, sometimes more than a 1000, but never less than 300 feet higher than my head, as I stood upon the brink, which fell back perpendicularly into the crater, there being no wind. This furnace or mouth was in the vortex of the hill, which it had formed round it. The other mouth was lower, in the side of the same new-formed hill, and filled with such red hot liquid matter as we see in a glass-house furnace, which raged and wrought as the waves in the sea, causing a short abrupt noise, like what may be imagined from a sea of quicksilver dashing among uneven rocks. This stuff would sometimes spew over, and run down the convex side of the conical hill, and appearing at first red hot, it changed colour, and hardened as it cooled, shewing the first rudiments of an eruption, or an eruption in miniature: All which I could exactly survey by the favour of the wind, for the space of an hour and a half; during which it was very observable, that all the vollies
[sic]
of smoke, flame, and burning stone, came only out of the hole to our left, while the liquid stuff in the other mouth worked and overflowed.
On June 5, after a horrid noise, the mountain was seen, at Naples, to spew a little out of the crater, and so continued till about two hours before night on the 7th, when it made hideous bellowing, which continued all that night, and the next day till noon, causing all the windows, and, as some affirm, the very houses in Naples (about six miles distant) to shake. From that time it spewed vast quantities of melted stuff to the South, which streamed down the side of the mountain, like a pot boiling over.
On the 9th, at night, a column of fire shot at intervals out of its summit.
On the 10th, the mountain grew very outrageous again, roaring and groaning most dreadfully, sounding like a noise made up of a raging tempest, the murmur of a troubled sea, and the roaring of thunder and artillery, confused altogether. This moved my curiosity to approach the mountain. Three or four of us were carried in a boat, and landed at Torre del Greco, a town situate at the foot of Vesuvius to the S.W. whence we rode between four and five miles before we came to the burning river, which was about midnight; and as we approached, the roaring of the volcano grew exceeding loud and terrible. I observed a mixture of colours in the cloud over the crater, green, yellow, red, and blue. There was likewise a ruddy dismal light in the air, over the tract of land where the burning river flowed; ashes continually showering on us all the way from the sea-coast, which horrid scene grew still more extraordinary, as we came nearer the stream. Imagine a vast torrent of liquid fire rolling from the top down the side of the mountain, and with irresistible fury bearing down and consuming vines, olives, fig-trees, houses, and, in a word, every thing that stood in its way.