to fix its features on paper, as tliey are constantly
varyincT, sometimes the whole column of water
beino- Completely hidden from top to bottom by the
clouds of steam and vapour that envelop it, sometimes
but partially hidden, and the colours constantly
changing their hues as the sun or the clouds
intervene. .
The annexed sketch is the best repiTsentation 1
am able to produce, and it is but fair to confess
that it was done chiefly from the recollection of an
object which is not easily nor soon effaced froni
the memory. The beholder is in fact astounded
by the incessant noise and rapid motion of so
vast a column of water darted with so much
violence and velocity into the air, and is quite unprepared
to give anything like a faithful sketch
of the infinite changes of form and colour which
both the water and the steam assume. The picture
given by Sir George Mackenzie exhibits one
oreat mass of steam only, without any appearance
-of water, from which I judge he must have witnessed
it on a calm day.
Our curiosity being now pretty well satisfied,—
our provisions nearly exhausted,—ourselves and
our people not a little fatigued by a three days’
journey, and two nights spent amidst the boiling
cauldrons and the steam of these Phlegræan fields,
we made up our minds to sound a retreat,
and bend our steps homeward ; the bishop’s son
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