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of June, the inhabitants of Naples were all ſenſible of a violent ſhock of an earthquake; the undulatory motion was evidently from eaſt to weſt, and appeared to have laſted near half a minute. The ſky, which had been quite clear, was ſoon after covered with black clouds. The inhabitants of the towns and villages, which are very numerous at the foot of Veſuvius, felt this earthquake ſtill more ſenſibly, and ſay, that the ſhock at firſt was from the bottom upwards, after which followed the undulation from eaſt to weſt. This earthquake extended all over the Campagna Felice; and the royal palace at Caſerta, which is fifteen miles from Naples, and one of the moſt magnificent and ſolid buildings in Europe (the walls being eighteen feet thick) was ſhaken in ſuch a manner as to cauſe great alarm, and all the chamber bells rang. It was likewiſe much felt at Beneventum, about thirty miles from Naples; and at Ariano in Puglia, which is at a much greater diſtance; both theſe towns; indeed, have been of ten afflicted with earthquakes.
On Sunday the 15th of June, ſoon after ten o'clock at night, another ſhock of an earthquake was felt at Naples, but did not appear to be quite ſo violent as that of the 12th, nor did it laſt ſo long; at the ſame moment a fountain of bright fire, attended with a very black ſmoke and a loud report, was ſeen to iſſue, and riſe to a great height, from about the middle of the cone of Veſuvius; ſoon after another of the ſame kind broke out at ſome little diſtance lower down; then, as is ſuppoſed by the blowing up of a covered channel full of red hot lava, it had the appearance as if the lava had taken its courſe directly up the ſteep cone of of the volcano. Freſh fountains ſucceeded one another haſtily, and all in a direct line tending, for about a mile and a half down, towards the towns of
