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the water; and ſome of the wells became quite dry. Although most of the inhabitants were ſenſible of this phenomenon, not one of them ſeems to have ſuſpected the true cauſe of it. Eight days alſo before the eruption, a man and two boys being in ⟨a⟩ vineyard above Torre del Greco (aud preciſely on the spot where one of the new mouths opened whence the principal current of lava that deſtroyed the town iſſued) were much alarmed by a ſudden puff of ſmoke which iſſued from the earth cloſe ⟨to⟩ them, and was attended with a ſlight exploſion.
Had this circumſtance, with that of the ſubterraneous noiſes, heard at Reſina for two days before the eruption (with the additional one of the decreaſe of water in the wells) been communicated ⟨at⟩ the time, it would have required, no great foreſight to have been certain than an eruption of the ⟨volcano⟩ was near at hand, and that its force was directed particularly towards that part of the mountain.
On the 12th of June 1794, in the morning, there was a violent fall of rain, and ſoon after the inhabitants of Reſina, ſituated directly over the ancient town of Herculaneum, were ſenſible of a rumbling ſubterraneous noiſe, which was not heard at Naples.
From the month of January to the month ⟨of⟩ May, the atmoſphere had been generally calm, and there was continued dry weather, In the month of May there was a little rain, but the weather was unuſually ſultry. For ſome days preceding the eruption, the Duke della Torre, a learned and ingenuous nobleman, who publiſhed two letters upon ⟨the⟩ ſubject of the eruption, obſerved by his electrometers, that the atmoſphere was charged in ex (illegible text) with the electric fluid, and continued ſo for ſeveral days during the eruption.
About eleven o'clock on the night of the 12th
