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74
Annual Register
their birth; and the quantity of ashes, stones, and smoke, seemed as if they would cover the whole earth and sea.  Stones, great and small, and ashes more or less, according to the impulse of the fire and exhalations, began to fall, so that a great part of this country was covered with ashes; and any that have seen it, say, they reached the vale of Diana, and some parts of Calabria, which are more than 150 miles from Puzzuolo.  The Friday and Saturday nothing but a little smoke appeared, so that many, taking courage, went upon the spot, and say, that with the stones and ashes thrown up, a mountain has been formed in that valley, not less that three miles in circumference, and almost as high as the monte Barbaro, which is near it, covering the Canettaria, the castle of Trepergule, all those buildings and the greatest part of the baths that were about them; extending South towards the sea, North as far as the lake of Avernus, West to the Sudatory, and joining East to the foot of the monte Barbaro, so that this place has changed its form and face in such a manner as not to be known again, a thing almost incredible to those who have not seen it, that in so short a time so considerable a mountain could have been formed.  On its summit there is a mouth in the form of a cup, which may be a quarter of a mile in circumference, though some say it is as large as our market-place at Naples, from which there issues a constant smoke; and though I have seen it only at a distance, it appears very great.  The Sunday following, which was the 6th of October, many people going to see this phenomenon, and some having ascended half the mountain, others more, about 22 o'clock there happened so sudden and horrid an eruption, with so great a smoke, that many of these people were stifled, some of which could never be found.  I have been told, that the number of the dead or lost amounted to twenty-four.  From that time to this, nothing remarkable happened; it seems as if the eruption returned periodically, like the ague or gout.  I believe henceforward it will not have such force, though the eruption of the Sunday was accompanied with showers of ashes and water, which fell at Naples, and were seen to extend as far as the mountain of Somma, called Vesuvius by the ancients; and, as I have often remarked, the clouds of smoke proceeding from the eruption, moved in a direct line towards that mountain, as if these places had a correspondence and connection one with the other.  In the night, many beams and columns of fire were seen to proceed from this eruption, and some like flashes of lightening.  We have then, many circumstances for our observation, the earthquakes, the eruption, the drying up of the sea, the quantity of dead fish and birds, the birth of springs, the shower of ashes with water, and without water, the innumerable trees in that whole country, as far as the Grotto of Lucullus, torn from their roots, thrown down, and covered with ashes,
that
For the YEAR 1772.
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that it gave one pain to see them : and as all these effects were produced by the same cause that produces earthquakes; let us first enquire how earthquakes are produced, and from thence we may easily comprehend the cause of the abovementioned events."  Then follows a differtation on earthquakes, and some curious conjectures relative to the phenomena which attended this eruption, clearly and well expressed, considering, as the author himself apologizes, that at that time the Italian language had been little employed on such subjects.  
The account of the formation of the monte Nuovo, by Pietro Giacomo di Toledo, is given in a dialogue between the feigned personages of Peregrino and Sveffano; the former of which says, "It is now two years that this province of Campagna has been afflicted with earthquakes, the country about Pozzuolo much more so than any other parts, but the 27th and the 28th of the month of September last, the earthquakes did not cease day or night, in the abovementioned city of Pozzuolo; that plain which lies between the lake of Averno, the monte Barbaro, and the sea, was raised a little, and many cracks were made in it, from some of which issued water; and at the same time the sea, which was very near the plain, dried up about two hundred paces, so that the fish were left on the sand, a prey to the inhabitants of Pozzuolo.  At last, on the 29th of the said month, about two hours in the night, the earth opened near the lake, and discovered a horrid mouth, from which were vomited furiously, smoke, fire, stones, and mud composed of ashes; making, at the time of its opening, a noise like very loud thunder: the fire that issued from this mouth, went towards the walls of the unfortunate city; the smoke was partly black and partly white; the black was darker than darkness itself, and the white was like the whitest cotton: these smokes, rising in the air, seemed as if they would touch the vault of heaven; the stones that followed, were, by the devouring flames, converted to pumice, the size of which (of some I say) were much larger than an ox.  The stones went about as high as a cross-bow can carry, and then fell down, sometimes on the edge and sometimes into the mouth itself.  It is very true, that many of them in going up could not be seen, on account of the dark smoke; but when they returned from the smoky heat, they shewed plainly where they had been by their strong smell of fetid sulphur, just like stones that have been thrown out of a mortar, and have passed through the smoke of inflamed gunpowder.  The mud was of the colour of ashes, and at first very liquid, then by degrees less so, and in such quantities, that in less than twelve hours, with the help of the abovementioned stones, a mountain was raised of a thousand paces in height.  Not only Pozzuolo and the neighboring country was full of this mud, but the city of Naples also, the beauty of whole palaces were, in a great measure, spoiled by it."

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