Volume 2

Travels in the two Sicilies / by Henry Swinburne, esq., in the years 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1780.

  • Swinburne, Henry, 1743-1803.
Date:
1783-1785
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Travels in the two Sicilies / by Henry Swinburne, esq., in the years 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1780. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    27/590 (page 13)
    by Alphonfus the Firft, on the forfeited edates of the for¬ mer inhabitants. From the Borgo I proceeded on foot along high grounds that hang over the fhore, and foon arrived at a bed or ftagnated torrent of lava, near a quarter of a mile broad, frefh and bare as if lately cad out of the furnace, but in a rougher more didurbed form, and of a greyer co¬ lour than that of the Vefuvian lavas. I afcended about a mile to the crater, which is on the declivity of the central mountain of the idand, circular, fhallovv, and embanked with a vad mound of cinders; it is full of lava tvvided and curled as if, while in a fluid date, it had been dirred round with a dick : no vegetation has as yet taken place on thefe fubdances, though they have been expofed to the air flnce the year 1301. The eruption laded near two months, and caufed fuch devadation in the human and animal fpecies, by the malignity of its vapours and poifonous quality of its afhes, that whoever could efcape fled from this land of horror. The furious workings under ground forced up a prodigious quantity of Aones befides liquid matter, and rocks were formed in the fea, where they dill appear above water. Having pafled this fcene of defolated nature, I druck into a romantic path that led me through neat hamlets, before the gates and avenues of fmall well fltuated villas, and acrofs vineyards and orchards rich in a variety of pro- du&ions; now and then it drew me over uneven heaths grown