“Sir William Hamilton’s account of Vesuvius”

Creator

William Hamilton

Date

2-19-1812

Newspaper

Norfolk Herald

Page and Column

Page 2, Column 1-4

Newspaper Location

Norfolk, Virginia

Serial Number

1004

Abstract

Account of a volcanic eruption on Mount Vesuvius in 1767

Transcript

Earthquakes and Volcanos. MR. O'CONNOR, I observe in your last, an account of a Volcano which has forced its way through the top of a mountain on French Broad River, in the upper country of Tennessee, on the 16th Dec. last, which was probably one of the results of the Earthquake we felt here about that time; and I think it probable that an additional quantity of lava may have been discharged since, as the shocks have been repeated with us, at various times. I hope it will be one among other causes which may lead to purge the several Churches of their ignorant itenerant preachers, who fail not to torture the construction of every thing which can terrify this weak and credulous hear is-as in the case communicated by Mr. Edwards. It is moreover to be wished, that a free and full communication and collection of facts should be set about, so that philosophy may be ultimately aided. In volcanos, in enlightening the understanding of a subject which is new in this part of our country, and where a more general effect seems to have been felt than was road of elsewhere: Spear's Mountain being 450 miles from Norfolk. With a view to open this topic to a philosophical investigation, which is highly interesting to mankind, I herewith transmit Sir William Hamilton's account of the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, as transmitted by him from Naples to the President of the Royal Society and published in the Annual Registry for 1709-If you think this species of publication as interesting, as I do its promulgation in the Norfolk Herald, I will dendeavor to furnish you, hereafter, with an abstract from the official reports of the Earthquakes at Lima, Callao and Jamaica; with a sketch of one in Canada, more than a century ago, which is said to have been the largest. I am Yours, PHILANTHROPOS Norfolk, Feb. 18, 1812. Sir Wm. Hamilton's account of Vesuvius. An account of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1717: In a letter to the Earl of Morton, President of the Royal Society from the Honorable William Hamilton, his Majesty Envoy Extraordinary at Naples [Read, Feb. 11, 176?] Naples, Dec. 29, 1767. MR> LORD: The favourable reception, which my account of last year's eruption of Mount Vesuvius met with from your Lordship, the approbation which the Royal Society was pleased to show, by having ordered the same to be printed in their Philosophical Transactions and your Lordship's commands in your letter of the 3d instant, encourage me to trouble you with a plain narrative of what came immediately under my observation noting the late violent eruption which began October 19, 1767, and is reckoned to be the 27th since that, which in the time of Titus, destroyed Herculaneum and Pompeii. The eruption in 1766 continued in [unreadable] degree till the 10th of December, about nine months in all, yet in that space of time the mountain did not cast up a third of the quantity of lave, which it disgorged in only seven days, the term of this last eruption. On the 15th of December, last years within the ancient crater of Mount Vesuvius, and about twenty feet deep, there was a crust, which formed a plain, not unlike the solfaterra in miniature; in the midst of this plain was a little mountain, whose top did not rise so high as the ruin of the ancient crater. I went into the plain, and up the little mountain, which was perforated, and served us the principal chimney to the volcano; when I threw down large stones, I could hear that they met with many obstructions in their way, and could hear that they met with many obstructions in their way, and could count a hundred moderately before they reached the bottom. Vesuvius was quiet till March 1767, when it began to throw up stones from time to time; in April the throws were more frequent, and at night fire was visible on the top of the mountain; or, more properly speaking, the smoak, which hung over the crater, was tinged by the reflection of the fire within the volcano. These repeated throws of cinders, ashes, and pumice stones, immersed the little mountain so much, [unreadable] in May its top was visible above the rim of the ancient crater. The 7th of August there issued a small stream of lava from a breach in the side of a little mountain, which gradually [unreadable] the valley between it and the ancient crater; so that the 12th of September the lava overflowed the ancient crater, and took its course down the sides of the great mountain; by this time the throws were more frequent, and the red-hot stones went so high as to take up ten seconds in their fall. Padre Torre, a great observer of Mount Vesuvius says they went up above a thousand feet. The 13th of October, the height of the little mountain (formed in about eight months) was measured by Don Andrea Pigonsti, a very ingenious young man in his Silician majesty's service who assured me that its height was one hundred and eighty-five French [unreadable-text runs off page]. From my villa, situated between Herculaneum and Pompeii near the convent of the Calmaltholese, I had watched the growing of the little mountain, and by taking drawings of it from time to time, I could perceive its increase most minutely. I make no doubt but that the whole of Mount Vesuvius has been formed in the same manner; and as these observations occur to me to account for the various irregular strata, which are met with in the neighbourhood of volcanos. I have vetured to enclose for your lordship's inspection a copy of the above mentioned drawings. The lava continued to run over the ancient crater in small steams, sometimes on one side, and sometimes on another, till the 18th of October, when I took particular notice that there was not the least lava to be seen, owing, I imagine, to its being employed in forcing its way towards the place where it burst out the following day. As I had, contrary to the opinion of the people here, foretold the approaching eruption,* and had observed a great fermentation in the mountain after the heavy rains which fell the 13th and 14th of October, I was no surprised on the 19th following at seven o'clock in the morning, to perceive from my villa every symptom of the eruption being just at hand. From the top of the little mountain issued a thick black smoak, so thick, that it seemed to have difficulty in forcing its way [unreadable] cloud after cloud mounted with [unreadable] spiral motion, and every minute a volley of great stones were shot up to an immense height in the midst of those clouds; by degrees, the smoak took the exact shape of a huge pine tree, such as Piny the younger described in his letter to Tacitus, where he gives an account of the fatal eruption in which his uncle perished. This column of black smoak, after having mounted an extraordinary height, bent with the wind towards Caprca, and actually reached over that island, which is not less than twenty-eight miles from Vesuvius. I warned my family not to be alarmed, as I expected there would be an earthquake at the moment of the lava's bursting out; but before eight of the clock in the morning I perceived that the mountain had opened a mouth, without noise, about an hundred yards lower than the ancient crater, on the side towards the Monte di Somma, and I plainly perceived, by a white smoak which always accompanies the lava, that it had forced its way out, as soon as it had vent, the smoak no longer came out with the violence from the top.-As I imagined that there would be no danger in approaching the mountain when the lava had vent, I went up immediately, accompanied by one peasant only. I passed the hermitage and proceeded as far as the valley between the mountain of Somma and that of Vesuvius, which is called Atrio di Cavallo. I was making my observations upon the lava, which had already, from the spot where it first broke out reached the valley, which on a sudden, about noon, I heard a violent noise with in the mountain split; and, with much noise, from this new mouth, a fountain of liquid fire shot up many feet high, and then, like a torrent, rolled on directly toward us. The earth shook at the same time that a volley of pumice stones fell thick upon us; in an instant, clouds of black smoak and ashes caused almost a total darkness; the explosions from the top of the mountain were much louder than any thunder I ever heard, and the smell of the sulphur was very offensive. My guide alarmed, took to his heels; and I must confess that I was not at my ease. I followed close, and we ran near three miles without stopping; as the earth continued to shake under our feet, I was apprehensive of the opening of a fresh mouth, which might have cut off our retreat. I also feared that the violent explosions would detach some of the rocks off the mountain of Somma, under which we were obliged to pass; besides, the pumice stones, falling upon us like hail, were of such a size as to cause a disagreeable sensation upon the part where they fell. After having taken breath, as the earth still trembled greatly, I thought it most prudent to leave the mountain, and return to my villa, where I found my family in great alarm at the continual and violent explosions of the volcano, which shook our house to its very foundation, the doors and windows swinging upon their hinges. About two of the clock in the afternoon another lava forced its way out of the same place from whence came the lava last year, so that the conflagration was soon as great on this side of the mountain, as on the other which I had just left. The noise and smell of sulphur increasing we removed from our villa to Naples; and I though proper, as I passed by Porter, to inform the court of what I had seen; and humbly offered it as my opinion, that his Sicilian majesty should have the neighbourhood of the threatening mountain. However, the court did not leave Portici till about twelve o'clock-I observed, in my way to Naples, which was in less than two hours after I had left the mountain, that the lava had actually covered three miles of the very road through which we had retreated. It is astonishing that it should run so fast; as I have since seen that the river of lava, in the Atrio di Cavllo was sixty and seventy feet deep, and in some places near two miles broad. When his Silician Majesty quitted Portici, the noise was greatly increased, and the confusion of the air from the explosion was so violent, that, in the King's place, doors and windows were forced open, and even one door there, which was locked, was nevertheless burst open. At Naples, the same night, many windows and door flew open; in my house, which is not on the side of the town near Vesuvius, I tried the experiment of unbolting my windows, when they flew wide open upon every explosion of the mountain, Besides these explosions, which were very frequent, there was a continued subterraneous and violent rumbling noise, which lasted this night about five hours. I have imagined that this extraordinary noise might be owing to the lava in the bowels of the mountain having met with a desposition of rain water, and that the conflict between the fire and water may, in some measure, account for so extraordinary a crackling and hissing noise. Padre Torre, who has wrote so much and so well upon the subject of Mount Vesvirus, is also of my opinion; and indeed in its natural to image, that there may be rain-water lodged in many of the caverns of the mountain, as in the great eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1663, it is well attested, that several towns, among which Portici and Turre del Greco, were destroyed by a torrent of boiling water having burst out of the mountain with the lava, by which thousands of lives were losts....About four years ago Mount AEtna, is Sicily, threw up hot water also, during an eruption. The confusion at Naples this night cannot be described; his Sicilian majesty's hasty retreat from Portici added to the alarm; all the churches were opened and filled, the streets were thronged with processions of saints; but I shall avoid entering upon a description of the various ceremonies that were performed in this capital, to quell the fury of the turbulent mountain. Tuesday the 20th, it was impossible to judge of the situation of Vesuvius, on account of the smoak and ashes which covered it intirely, and spread over Naples also, the sun appearing as thro' a thick London fog, or a smoaked glass; small ashes fell all this day at Naples. The lavas on both sides of the mountain ran violently; but there was little or no noise till about nine o'clock at night, when the same uncommon rumbling began again, accompanied with explosions as before, which lasted about four hours; it seemed as if the mountain would spilt in pieces; the Parisian barometer was as yesterday, at 27, 9, and Fahrenheit's thermometer at 70 degrees; whereas, for some days preceding the eruption, it had been at 65 and 66. During the confusion of this night the prisoners in the public jail attempted to escape, having wounded the jailor, but were prevented by the troops. The mob also set fire to the cardinal archbishop's gate, because he refused to bring out the relicks of Saint Januarius. Wednesday the 21st, was more quiet than the preceding days, though the lavas ran [unreadable]. Portici was once in some [unreadable] not the lava taken a different [unreadable] when it was only a mile and a half [unreadable] towards night the lava slackened. Thursday the [unreadable] ten of the clock in the morning [unreadable] thundering noise began again [unreadable] with more violence than the preceding days; the oldest men declared that they had never heard the like, and, indeed, it was very alarming; we were in expectation every moment of some dire calamity. The ashes, or rather small cinders, showed down so fast, that the people in the streets were obliged to use umbrellas, or flap their hats , those ashes being very off mire to the eyes. The tops of the houses and the balconies, were covered above an inch thick with these cinders. Ships at sea, twenty leagues from Naples, were also covered with them to the great astonishment of the sailors. In the midst of these horrors, the mob growing turmultious and impatient, obliged the Cardinal to bring out the head of St. Januarius, and go with it in procession to the Ponte Maddalena, at the extremity of Naples, towards Vesuvius; and it is well attested here, that the eruption ceased the moment the Saint came in sight of the mountain; it is true the noise ceased about that time, after having lasted five hours, as it done the preceeding days. Friday, 23d, the lava still ran, and the mountain continued to throw up quantities of stones from its crater; there was no noise heard at Naples this day, and but little ashes fell there. Saturday, 24th, the lava ceased running the extent of the lava, from the spot where I saw it break out, to its extremity, where it surrounded the chapel of St. Vito, is about 6 miles.-In the Atrio di Cavilo, and in a deep valley, that lies between Vesvius and the Hermitage, the lava is some places two miles broad, and in most places from 60 to 70 feet deep; the lava ran down a hollow way, called Fosso Grande, made by the current of rain water; it is not less than 200 feet deep, and 100 broad; yet the lava in one place has filled it up. I could not have believed that so great a quantity of matter could have been thrown out in so short a time, if I had not examined the whole course of the lava myself-The great compact body will certainly retain some heat many months; at this time, much rain having fallen for some days past, the lava smoaks, as if it ran afresh; and about ten days ago, when I was up the mountain with Lord Somerset, we thrush sticks into the crevices of the lava, which took fire immediately:--But to proceed with my journal. The 21th Vesuvius continued to throw up stones as on the proceeding days; daring the whole of this eruption it had differed in this circumstance from the eruption in 1766, when no stones were thrown out of the crater from the moment the lava ran freely. Sunday 25th, small ashes fell all day at Naples, they issue from the crater of the volcano, and formed a vast column, as black as the mountain itself; so that the shadow of it was marked out on the surface of the sea; continued flashes of forked, or zig-zag lightning, shot from this black column, the thunder of which was heard in the neighbourhood of the mountain, but not at Naples, there were no clouds in the sky at this time, except those of smoak issuing from the center of Vesuvius. I was much pleased with this phenomenon, which I had not seen before in this perfection. Monday, 26th, the smoak continued, but not so thick, neither were there any flashes of mountain lightning. As no lava has appeared after this column of black smoak, which must have been occasioned by some inward operation of fire, I am apt to think that the lava, which should naturally have followed this symptom, has broke its way into some deeper cavern, where it is silently brooding future mischief; and I shall be much mistaken if it does not break out a few months hence. Tuesday 27th, no more black smoak, or any sign of eruption. Thus, my lord, I have had the honor of giving your lordship a faithful narrative of my observations during this eruption, which is universally allowed to have been the most violent of this century; and I shall be happy if it should meet with your approbation, and that of the Royal Society, if your lordship should think it worthy of being communicated to so respectable a body. I have just sent a present to the British Museum of a complete collection of every sort of matter produced by Mount Vesuvirus, which I have been collecting with some pains for these three years past; and it will be a great satisfaction to me, if by the means of this collection, some of my country men, learned in natural history, may be enabled to make some useful discoveries relative to volcanos* I have also accompanied that collection with a current of lava from Mount Vesuvius; it is painted with transparent colours, and when lighted up with lamps behind it, gives a much better idea of Vesuvius, than is possible to be given by any effort sort of painting. I have the honor to be, My Lord, Your Lordship's most obedient, and most humble servant, WILLIAM HAMILTON *This plainly appears from the following extract of a letter from the same gentleman to the president, dated Naples, October 6, 1767. "Mount Vesuvius is preparing for another eruption, or rather a second part of the last, as it has never been quite since the beginning of the year 1765. The lava already runs over the crater, and by the quality of stones and ashes, the [unreadable] has almost filled the crater, and has risen at least eighty feet within them last three months." +These are the words "Nubes (incertum procol insuentibus ex quo monte: Vesuvium fuisse postea cognitum est) oriebatur, cajus, similitialmem & formani, [unreadable] magis arbor, quam pinus expresserit. Nam, lougissimo Velutitrunch [unreadable] in altum, [unreadable] diffundchatur, credo quia [unreadable] spiritu evecta, dein senescente [unreadable] in latitudiuem evanescebat, candis interdum, interdum [unreadable] prout terrum [unreadable]. "I am well convinced by this collection, that many variegated marbles, and many precious stones, are the produce of volcanos and that there have been volcanos in many parts of the world, where at present there are no traces of them visible." This is taken from a prior letter of Mr. Hamilton to the President, dated April 7, 1767.

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