These original letters use the old style letter s, which is much like an f. It has been retained in these extracts although a letter f has been used for this s The computer does not support the f with only the left half ot the cross-bar which is the letter which was used in this document. The original pagination haa been retained in these exerpts. The line length except on title pages and introduction has been altered from the original shorter line format.
The sections of this book quoted here were also published (without footnotes) in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, London.
These exerpts are from Hamilton's letter number 5. Pages 156-157, which follow, refer to the birth of the volcano called Arso on the island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples. There follows also a link to a map of the Bay of Naples, Hamilton's plate VIand to the excerpt pages 168-173 which contains the key to the numbers on the map.
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O B S E R V A T I O N S
O N
M O U N T V E S U V I U S
MOUNT ETNA
AND OTHER VOLCANO'S:
. IN
A SERIES OF LETTERS,
Addreffed to T H E R O Y A L S O C I E T Y,
from the Honourable Sir W. HAMILTON,
K.B. F.R.S.
His Magefty's Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
at the Court of N A P L E S,
To which are added,
Explanatory Notes by the A U T H O R
hitherto unpublifhed,
A NEW EDITION
L O N D O N,
Printed for T. C A D E L L, in the Strand,
MDCCLXXIV,
____iii
T H E E D I T O R TO THE PUBLIC,
HAVING mentioned to Sir
WILLIAM HAMILTON the
general Defire of all Lovers of Natu
ral History, that his Letters upon the
Subject of VOLCANO should be col
leflced together in one Volume, par
ticularly for the Convenience of fuch
as may have an Opportunity of vifit
ing the curious Spots defcribed in
them: He was not only pleafed to
___iv
approve of my having undertaken,
this Pub1ication, but has likewife.
favoured with the additional explana-
tory Notes and Drawings,
The PUBLIC 'S moft obliged,
and devoted:
humble .Servant
T. CADELL
May 30, 1772.
____The following pages ,156-159, include the description of the birth of the volcano Ischia.
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156
Nearer the town of Ifchia, which is on the fea fhore, at a place called Le Cremate, there is a crater, from which, in the year I30I or 1302, a lava ran quite into the fea; there is not the leaft vegetation on this lava, but it is nearly in the fame ftate as the modern lavas of Vefuvius. Pontano, Maranti, and D. Francefco Lombardi, have recorded this eruption; the latter of whom fays, that it lafted two months; that many men and beafts were killed by the explofion; and that a number of the inha- bitants were obliged to feek for refuge at Naples and in the neighbouring islands. ln fhort, according to my idea, the ifland of Ifchia muft have taken its rife from the bottom of the fea, and been increafed to its prerent flze by divers later explofions. This is not extraordinary, when history tells us (and from my own ob- servation I have reafon to believe) that the Lipari iflands were formecl in the like manner. There has been no eruption in Ifchia fince that juft mentioned, but earth quakes ____
157
quakes are very frequent there; two years ago, as I was told, they had a very con- fiderable fhock of an earthquake in this island.
Father Goree's account of the formation of the new island in the Archipelago (situ- ated between the two islands called Kammeni, and near that of Santorini) of which he was an eye-witnefs, ftrongly confirms the probability of the conje&tures I venture to fend you, relative to tbe formation of thofe inands ancl that part of the continent above dercribed: it feems likewife to confirm the accounts given by Strabo, Pliny, Juftin, and other ancient authors, of many islands in the Archipelago, formerly called the Ciclades, having fprung; up from the bottom of the fea [footnote t] in the
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[ Footnote t] By having rcmarked, that all the implements of ftone brought by Meff.. Banks and Solander from the new-difcovered iflands in the South-Seas, are evidently of fuch a nature as are only produced by Volcanos; and as thefe gentlemen have affured me, that no other kind of ftone is to be met with in the iflands; l am
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158
like manner.........
[footnote t continued] induced to think that these islands (at fo great a diftance from any continent) may have likewise been pushed up from the bottom of the fea by like explofions.
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The following pages contain the key to the numbers indicating places on the map of the Bay of Naples including the island of Ischia and other localities of interest [Plate VI}
168
References to numbers on the map:
169
170
171
172
173
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