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82  ANNUAL REGISTER 

have described, which on that account was called by the ancients Campania Felix. The fame circumstance is evident in Sicily, justly esteemed one of the most fertile spots in the world, and the granary of Italy. May not subterraneous fire be considered as the great plough (if I 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, whilst we are exhausting those we are actually in possession of, by the frequent crops we draw from them? Would it not be found, upon enquiry, that many precious minerals must have remained far out of our reach, had in not been for such operations of nature? It is evidently so in this country. But such great enquiries would lead me far indeed. I will only add a reflection, which my own little experience in this branch of natural history furnishes me with. It is that we are apt to judge of the great operations of nature on too confined a plan. When first I came to Naples, my whole attention, with respect to natural history, was confined to mount Vesuvius, and the wonderful phæomena attending a burning mountain; but, in proportion as I began to perceive the evident marks of the fame operation having been carried on in the different parts above described, and likewise in Sicily, in a greater degree, I looked upon mount Vesuvius only as a spot on which nature was at present active, and thought myself fortunate in having an opportunity of seeing the manner in which one of her great operations (an operation, I believe, much less out of her common course than is generally imagined) was effected.
 Such remarks as I have made on the eruptions of mount Vesuvius during my residence at Naples, have been transmitted to the Royal Society, who have done them more honour than they deserved. Many more might be made upon this active volcano, by a person who had leisure, a previous knowledge of the natural history of the earth, a knowledge of chemistry, and was practised in physical experiments, particularly those of electricity. I am convinced that the smoke of volcanos contains always a portion of electrical matter, which is manifest at the time of great eruptions, as is mentioned in my account of the great eruption of Vesuvius in 1767. The peasants in the neighbourhood of my villa, situated at the foot of Vesuvius, have assured me, that, during the eruption last mentioned, they were more alarmed by the lightening and balls of fire that fell about them with a crackling noise than by the lava and the usual attendants of an eruption. I find in all the accounts of great eruptions mention made of this sort of lightening, which is distinguished here by the name of Ferilli. Bracini, in his account of the great on of Vesuvius in 1631, says, that the column of smoke which issued from its crater, went over near a hundred miles of country, and that several men and beast were struck dead by lightening, issuing from this smoke in its course.
 The nature of the noxious vapours, called here mofete, that are usually set in motion by an eruption of the volcano, and are then manifest in the wells and the subterraneous 
For the YEAR 1772  83
terraneous parts of its neighbourhood, seem likewise to be little understood. From some experiments very lately made, by the ingenious Dr. Nuth, on the mofete of the Grotto del Cane, it appears that all its known qualities and effects correspond with those attributed to fixed air. Just before the eruption of 1767, a vapour of this kind broke into the king's chapel at Portci, by which a servant, opening the door of it, was struck down. About the same time, as his Sicilian majesty was shooting in a paddock near the palace, a dog dropped down, as was supposed, in a fit; a boy going to take him dropped likewise; a person present, suspecting the accident to have proceeded from a mofete, immediately dragged them both from the spot where they lay, in doing which, he was himself sensible of the vapour; the boy and the dog soon recovered.  His Sicilian majesty did me the honour of informing me himself of this accident soon after it had happened. I have met with these mofetes often, when I have been making my observations on the borders of mount Vesuvius, particularly in caverns, and once on the Solfaterra. The vapour affects the nostrils, throat, and stomach, just as the spirit of hartshorn, or any strong volatile salts, and would soon prove fatal if you did not immediately remove from it.  Under the ancient city of Pompeii, the mofetes are very frequent and powerful, so that the excavations that are carrying on there are often interrupted by them; at all times mofetes are to be met with under ancient lavas of Vesuvius, particularly those of the great eruption of 1631. In Serao's account of the eruption of 1737, and in the chapter upon mofetes, he has recorded several curious experiments relative to this phænomenon. The Canonico Recupero, who, as I mentioned to you in a former letter, is watching the operations of mount Etna, has just informed me, that a very powerful mofete has lately manifested itself in the neighbourhood of Etna; and that he found near the spot from whence it rises, animals, birds, and insects, dead, and stronger sort of shrubs blasted, whilst the grass and tenderer plants did not seem to be affected. The circumstance of this mofete, added to that of the frequent earthquakes felt lately at Rhegio and Messina, makes it probable that an eruption of mount Etna is at hand.
 I am alarmed at the length of this letter. By endeavouring to make myself clearly understood, I have been led to make, what I thought, necessary digressions. I must therefore beg of your goodness, that, should you find this memoir in its present state, too tedious (which I greatly apprehend) to be presented to our respectable Society, you will make only such extracts from it as you shall think will be most agreeable and interesting. I am,
S I R,
 With great truth and regard, 
  Your most obedient
   humble servant
  William Hamilton.
G2  An

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