DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1082#0100
64 POMPEIANA.
obscurity he found a level space. In the
midst of this was a huge mass of rockl,
which seems to have covered the opening
to the abyss, as from the fissures around
its base issued a cold and vehement cur-
rent of air2. He also observed three
small pools of water, one of which was
hot and corrosively bitter, a second ex-
tremely salt, while the insipidity of the
third he compares to chicken broth
without salt; it was of a high degree of
temperature 3.
Braccini gives a detailed account of
the tremendous rebursting forth of Ve-
suvius, 1631; which appears what might
have been expected after five centuries of
1 Many masses of rock now lie around the base of the
cone ; one measures 19 feet in height by 60 in circumference,
a second girts 100 feet, and is 17 high.
2 The coldness of this current of air does not prove
the fires of the volcano to have been extinct; for its passage
through prolonged and contracted fissures would totally
extract whatever degree of heat it might have acquired
when passing over the surface of fire.
3 Astruni contains wild boars, and has three pools.
obscurity he found a level space. In the
midst of this was a huge mass of rockl,
which seems to have covered the opening
to the abyss, as from the fissures around
its base issued a cold and vehement cur-
rent of air2. He also observed three
small pools of water, one of which was
hot and corrosively bitter, a second ex-
tremely salt, while the insipidity of the
third he compares to chicken broth
without salt; it was of a high degree of
temperature 3.
Braccini gives a detailed account of
the tremendous rebursting forth of Ve-
suvius, 1631; which appears what might
have been expected after five centuries of
1 Many masses of rock now lie around the base of the
cone ; one measures 19 feet in height by 60 in circumference,
a second girts 100 feet, and is 17 high.
2 The coldness of this current of air does not prove
the fires of the volcano to have been extinct; for its passage
through prolonged and contracted fissures would totally
extract whatever degree of heat it might have acquired
when passing over the surface of fire.
3 Astruni contains wild boars, and has three pools.