ording to Pini, the
depth of the crater is 421 English feet from the summit of the hill, so
that its bottom is only nineteen feet above the level of the sea. The
cone is declared, by the best authorities, to stand partly on the site
of the Lucrine Lake (4, fig. 43),[502] which was nothing more than the
crater of a pre-existent volcano, and was almost entirely filled during
the explosion of 1538. Nothing now remains but a shallow pool, separated
from the sea by an elevated beach, raised artificially.

[Illustration: Fig. 43.

The Phlegraean Fields.

1. Monte Nuovo.
2. Monte Barbaro.
3. Lake Avernus.
4. Lucrine Lake.
5. The Solfatara.
6. Puzzuoli.
7. Bay of Baiae.

]

Sir William Hamilton has given us two original letters describing this
eruption. The first, by Falconi, dated 1538, contains the following
passages.[503] "It is now two years since there have been frequent
earthquakes at Puzzuoli, Naples, and the neighboring parts. On the day
and in the night before the eruption (of Monte Nuovo), above twenty
shocks, great and small, were felt. The eruption began on the 29th of
September, 1538. It was on a Sunday, about one o'clock in the night,
when flames of fire were seen between the hot baths and Tripergola. In a
short time the fire increased to such a degree, that it burst open the
earth in this place, and threw up so great a quantity of ashes and
pumice-stones, mixed with water, as covered the whole country. The next
morning (after the formation of Monte Nuovo) the poor inhabitants of
Puzzuoli quitted their habitations in terror, covered with the muddy and
black shower which continued the whole day in that country--flying from
death, but with death painted in their countenances. Some with their
children in their arms, some with sacks full of their goods; others
leading an ass, loaded with their frightened family, towards Naples;
others carrying quantities of birds, of various sorts, that had fallen
dead at the beginning of the eruption; others, again, with fish which
they had found, and which were to be met with in plenty on the shore,
the sea having left them dry for a considerable time. I accompanied
Signor Moramaldo to behold the wonderful effects of the eruption. The
sea had retired on the side of Baiae, abandoning a considerable tract,
and the shore appeared almost entirely dry, from the quantity of ashes
and broken pumice-stones thrown up by the eruption. I saw two springs in
the newl