Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Image not available - no digital rights
dates on which the saints' relics were carried to the foot of the
mountain, gave him a fairly accurate picture of earlier eruptive
activity. He looked also at the geology of the district, and at
the condition and employment of the inhabitants.³ In the intro-
duction to the first volume Hamilton wrote:
William Hamilton
and Pietro Fabris, plate
from Campi Phlegraei
(1776-9), depicting the
eruption of Vesuvius,
23 December 1760
to 8 January 1761.
There is no doubt but that the neighbourhood of an active
Volcano, must suffer from time to time the most dire
calamities, the natural attendants of earthquakes, and
eruptions. Whole cities, with their inhabitants, are either
buried under showers of pumice stones and ashes, or over-
whelmed by rivers of liquid fires; others again are swept off
in an instant, by torrents of hot water issuing from the mouth
of the same volcano, of which, in the very little we know of
the History of Mount Vesuvius and Etna (the present active
Volcanoes of these Kingdoms) there are many examples; and
the ruins of Herculaneum, Pompeii, Stabia, and Catania relate
their sad catastrophes in the most pathetick terms.4
The more active Vesuvius seemed to be, the keener Hamilton
was to climb up it. He made many ascents of the crater, sometimes
spending a night on the slopes:
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search