( 37 )
running into it, having overwhelmed, burnt, and deſtroyed the greateſt part of Torre del Greco, the principal ſtream of lava having taken its courſe through the very center of the town. They obſerved from Naples, that when the lava was in the vineyards in its way to the town, there iſſued often, and in different parts of it, a bright pale flame, and very different from the deep red of the lava; this was occaſioned by the burning of the trees that ſupported the vines.. Soon after the beginning of this eruption, aſhes fell thick at the foot of the mountain, all the way from Portici to the Torre del Greco; and what is remarkable, although there were not at that time any clouds in the air, except thoſe of ſmoke from the mountain, the aſhes were wet, and accompanied with large drops of water, which were to the taſte very ſalt; the road, which is paved, was as wet as it there had been a heavy ſhower of rain. Thoſe aſhes were black and coarſe, like the ſand of the ſea-ſhore, whereas thoſe that fell there, and at Naples ſome days after, were of a light-grey, and as fine as Spaniſh ſnuff, or powder bark. They contained many ſaline particles; whoſe aſhes that lay on the ground, expoſed to the burning ſun, had a coat of the whiteſt powder on their ſurface, which to the taſte was extremely ſalt and pungent. In the printed account of the eruption by Emanuel Scotri, doctor of phyſic and profeſſor of philoſophy in the univerſity of Naples; he ſuppoſes (which appears to be highly probable) that the water which accompanied the fall of the aſhes at the beginning of the eruption, was produced by ⟨the⟩ mixture of the inflammable and dephlogiſticated air.
By the time that the lava had reached the ſea, between five and ſix o'clock in the morning of the 6th, Veſuvius was ſo completely involved in
