The rigid limits to which we must restrict our selves in this article, prevent our (icing more than allude to the rich variety of simple minerals, many of them of great singularity and rarity, which are to be met with upon Mount Vesuvius. It combines the fine zeolites of the trap rocks, with the rich and splendid productions of primitive strata, including several of the gems, and many species quite pecu liar. We must content ourselves with referring to a work now publishing at Naples, by Signori Mon ticelli and Covelli, entitled, Prodromo della Mine ralogia Vesuviana.* A few of the principal species will be found enumerated in the Edinburgh Journal of Science, vol. ix. p. 206.
We must conclude this brief and imperfect arti cle with a short sketch of the history of Vesuvius.
From the well known features of Mount Etna, the ancients had sufficient intelligence to draw the conclusion that although they had never seen Ve suvius emit flames, that it had once emitted similar devastation; an opinion probably countenanced by tradition, although we can found little upon the express assertion in the works of Berosus, that an eruption actually took place some hundred or thou sand years before the commencement of the Chris tian era, as the writings which go under the name of that historian cannot be considered as genuine.
The first recorded eruption that took place was therefore that of A.D. 72, which must ever be me morable on that account, as well as the singular ravages which it produced, and the interesting ac count of some of its features which have been handed down in the elegant letters of the younger Pliny. The towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii being entombed by this eruption, were preserved, as if by a miracle, to modern times; two relics so truly extraordinary, so romantically interesting, as to resemble rather the fancy of some bright imagina tion, than sober realities placed within the reach of our senses. For farther information on these cities and the eruption by which they were overwhelmed, we must refer to the articles under their names, as well as the works there cited; and for a synopsis of all that is at present known concerning them, to a paper recently published, expressly on the subject.t To this eruption, according to the opinion of most naturalists, was owing a great change in the form of the mountain, and the total alteration of the pri meval point of ejection, for we have already seen that the original crater probably existed some where in the escarpment of Monte Somma. The scale of the catastrophe must, in all probability, have exceeded that of any subsequent eruption. It seems most likely that a natural rent formed the present outline of the Monte Somma, and all the seaward portion of the mountain being thrown off, formed the basis or wide plain from which the new cone was to rise.
The second recorded eruption occurred A.D. 200. It was attended by loud subterranean noises. Others succeeded in the years 204, 243, 305, 321, 472,512, 557, 685, 893, 980, 993, 1024, 1036, 1138, and 1430. Those of 472 and 1036 were the most remarkable. Between 665 and 1036, the eruptions were very slight, and the mountain, comparatively speaking, in a state of repose. In the latter year lava, to a remarkable extent is first particularly re corded; it then reached the sea. Considerable doubt has been thrown over the phenomena of the middle ages, by the imperfect records which have reached us from even a few centuries back. The eruption of 1138 was considerable, and lasted forty days. By some an eruption has been placed in 1306, and one extremely doubtful is related by one author only as occurring in the year 1500; that of 1430 was pro bably trifling. Of contemporary volcanic parox
ysms in the vicinity, we may mention the eruption of the Solfatara in 1198, that of Monte Epomeo in the neighbouring island of Ischia in 1302, and the volcanic explosion which produced the Monte Nu ovo-a hill in the bay of Baja, 420 feet high, and a mile and a half in circumference, in thirty-six hours. This took place in 1538.
The most tremendous eruption which had oc curred since that under Titus, took place in the year 1631. The mountain, according to the gene ral account, had been quiet for some centuries, its sides were cultivated and its crater wooded with luxuriant forests. The magnitude of the catastro phe was proportional to the deceptive appearances of repose before exhibited, and the injury occasion ed was prodigious: not less than 4000 persons were killed, whole villages depopulated and burned, and vast tracts of territory laid waste by copious streams of lava. It is unnecessary to expatiate upon the particular descriptions of eruptions which, except in degree, are for the most part very similar. The minutia of this very remarkable one, have been carefully preserved by contemporary writers. Only 20 years after, the explosive energy again mani fested itself, and produced a violent eruption in 1660. After this the mountain changed its charac ter, by producing eruptions far more frequently than before, and, generally speaking, of less aver age importance. Those of the remainder of the century, in the years 1682, 1685, 1689, 1694, 1696, to 1698 were unimportant, with the exception of that of The eighteenth century likewise opened with a series of closely following trifling eruptions, particularly in 1701, 1704, 1703, 1712, and thereafter almost every year, till 1734. Then in 1737, 1751, 1754, 1759, 1765, 1766, and 1769, the last of which was more than usually violent. 1776-8. Here a pause occurred, during which the mountain seemed to gather strength for the catastrophe of 1794, one of the most tremendous of modern eruptions, and by which the entire town of Torre del Greco was destroyed. Breislak, who was an eye witness of this eruption, has given many interesting details regarding it in his work on Cam pania. We shall only quote the result of his cu rious calculation respecting the mass of lava ejected, not from the crater, but from the secondary open ings formed near the base of the cone. He esti mates its solid contents at 2,804,440 cubic toises, or about 733,350,000 cubic English feet; which would cover to the depth of a foot 16,836 imperial acres. Minor eruptions occurred in 1802, 1803, 1804, 1806, 1809, 1810, 1812, 1816, 1817, 1818, 1819, 1820; but in 1822, in the month of February, a paroxysm took place which proved the precursor of one of the most awful and magnificent on record, which happened in October. Fortunately its de vastation spread in a direction calculated to pro duce little hazard of life, and was carried by the slope of the ground through the western embou chure of the Atrio del Cavallo. As an eruption, it probably was more remarkable than that of 1794, which was so abundant in the production of lava; but we have already seen that the old or palo sum mit of the cone remained untouched during at least half a century, before it was carried off with 800 feet of the cone, by the eruption of 1822. So com pletely emptied the mountain seems to have been on this last occasion, that it is improbable that any