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two years ago in a chamber at that time, opened in the baths of Titus, are three dif. ferent kinds of red; one right and ap proaching to orange, another dull red, a third a purplish red Ou exposing the bright red to the flame of a.coho, it be came darker red; and on incre sing the heat by a blow-pipe, it fused into a mass having the appearance of sitharge, and which was proved to be this substance by the action of sulphuric and muriatic acids. This co.our is consequently minium, or the red oxide of lead.

under that of cerussa usta. It is said, by Phuy,† to have been discovered accidentally by means of a fire that took place at the Piraus at Athens. Some ceruse which had been exposed to this fire was found converted into minium, and the process was artificially imitated: and he states, that it was first used as pigment by Nicias.‡

Several red earths used in painting are described by Theophrastus, Vitruvius, and Pliny. The Sinopian earth, the Armenian earth, and the African ochre, which had its red colour produced by calcination.

Cinnabar and vermilion was called by the Greeks, kinnabar, and by the Romans minium. It is said by Theophrastus¶ to

On exposing the dull red to heat, it became black, but on cooling, recovered its former tint. When heated in a glass tube it attorded no volatile matter conden-have been discovered by Callias, an Athesible by cold but water. Acted on by muriatic acid, it rendered it yellow; and the acid, after being heated upon it, yielded an orange-coloured precipitate to ammonia. When fused with hydrate of potassa, the colour rendered it yellow; and the mixture acted on by nitric acid afforded silica and orange oxide of iron. It is evident from these results that the duli red colour is an irou ochre.

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The purplish red submitted to experiments, exhibited similar phænomena, and proved to be an ochre of a different tint.

In examining the fresco paintings in the baths of Titus, I found that these colours had been all of them used, the ochres particularly, in the shades of the figures, and the minium in the ornaments on the borders.

I found another red on the walls, of a tint different from those in the vase and much brighter, and which had been. einployed in various apartments, and formed the basis of the colouring of the niche and other parts of the chamber in which the Laocoon is said to have been found. On scraping a little of this colour from the wall, and submitting it to chemical tests, it proved to be vernation or cinnabar, and on heating it with iron filings, running quicksilver was procured from it.

I found the same colour on some fragments of ancient stucco in a vineyard, near the pyramidical monument of Čaius Cestius.

In the Nozze Aldobrandine, the reds are all ochres. I tried on these reds the action of acids, of alkalies, and of chlorine, but could discover no traces either of minium or vermilion in this picture.

Minium was known to the Greeks under the name of Sundarache,† and to the Romans

Nearly of the same tint as prussiate of Copper. Dioscorides, lib. v. 122.

nian, ninety years before Praxibulus, and in the 39th year of Rome, and was prepared by washing the ores of quicksilver. According to Pliny,' ** who quotes Verrius, it was a colour held in great esteem in Rome at the time of the Republic; on great stivals it was used for painting the face of Jupiter Capitolinus, and likewise for colouring the body of the victor in the triumphal processions, "sic famillum triumphasse."++ Pliny mentions that even in his time vermilion was always placed at triumphal feasts amongst the precious ointments; and that the first occupation of new censors of the Capitol was to fill the place of vermilion-painter to Jupiter.

Vermilion was always a very dear colour amongst the Romans; and we are informed by Pliny, that to prevent the price from being excessive, it was fixed by the govern ment. The circumstance of the chambers in the baths of Titus being covered with it, affords proof in favour of their being intended for imperial use; and we are expressly informed by the author I have just quoted, that the Laocoon, in his time, was in the palace of Titus:‡‡ and the taste of the ancients in selecting a colour to give full effect to their master-pieces of sculpture was similar to that of a late celebrated English connoisseur.

Pliny describes a second or inferior sort of vermilion formed by calcining stone

† Lib. xxxv. cap. 20.

Id. ibid. § De Architectura, lib. vii. cap. 7. Dioscorides, lib. v. cap. 109. De Lapid. cap. 104. ** Lib. xxxiii. cap. 36. Nunc inter pigmenta magnæ auctoritatis, et quondam apud Romanos non solum maximæ, sed etiam sacra. †† Ibid.

‡‡ Lib. xxxvi. cap. 4. Sicut in Laocoonte, qui est in Titi Imperatoris domo, opus omnibus et picturæ et statuariæ artis præponendum.

found in veins of lead. It is evident that this substance was the same as our minium, and the Roman cerussa usta, and the stones alluded to by Pliny, must have been carbonate of lead: and he states distinctly, that it is a substance which becomes red only when burnt.

III. Of the Yellow of the Ancients.

A large earthen pot found in one of the chambers of the baths of Titus contains a quantity of a yellow paint, which, submitted to chemical examination, proved to be a mixture of yellow ochre with chalk

or carbonate of lime.

This colour is used in considerable quantities in different parts of the baths; but principally in the least ornamented chambers, and in those which were probably intended for the use of the domestics. In the vase to which I alluded in the last section, I found three different yellows; two of them proved to be yellow ochres mixed with different quautities of chalk, and the third a yellow ochre anixed with red oxide of lead, or minium.

The ancients procured their yellow ochre* from different parts of the world; but the most esteemed, as we are informed by Pliny, was the Athenian ochre; and it is stated by Vitruvius, that in his time the mine which produced this substance was no longer worked.

The ancients had two other colours, which was orange or yellow; the auripig. mentum, or arsenikon said to approach to gold in its colour, and which is described by Vitruviust as found native in Pontus, and which is evidently sulphuret of arsenic; and a pale sandarach, said by Pliny to have been found in gold and silver mines, and which was imitated at Rome by a partial calcination of ceruse, and which must have been massicot, or the yellow oxide of lead mixed with minium. That there was a colour called by the Romans sandarach, different from pure minium, is evident from what Pliny says: namely, that the palest kind of orpiment resembles sandarach, and from the line of Nævius, one of the most ancient Latin poets, Merula sandaracino ore:" so that this colour must have been a bright yellow similar to that of the beak of the blackbird. Dioscorides describes the best sandarach as approach ing in colour to vermillion,§ and the Greeks probably always applied this term to minium; but the Romans seem to have

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OCHRA Theophrastus de Lapidibus. + Vitruvius, lib. vii. Histoire de la Peinture ancienne, pà. 199. § Lib. v. 122.

used it in a different sense; and some con fusion was natural when different colours were prepared from the same substance by different degrees of calcination.

I have not detected the use of orpiment in any of the ancient fresco paintings ;but a deep yellow approaching to orange, which covered a piece of stucco in the ruins to be oxide of lead, and consisted of mas near the monument of Caius Cestius, proved that the ancients used many colours from sicot mixed with minium. It is probable lead of different tints between the usta of Pliny, which was our minium, and imperfectly decomposed ceruse, or pale massicot.

The yellows in the Aldobrandini picture are all ochres. I examined the colours in of the houses at Pompeii, of a lion and a a very spirited picture, on the wall of one man; they all proved to be red and yellow ochres.

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tation was drawn up by an eye-witness, and The following account of this awful visiintended as an appeal to the charitable feelings of the inhabitants of the Manilla slands:

More than 18 years had elapsed, during which the volcano of Albay, by some called Mayon, had preserved a continued and profound silence, without giving the least sign of its existence. It was no longer viewed with that distrust and horror, with which volcanoes usually inspire those who inhabit the vicinity. In the year 1800, its last eruptions took place, in which it emitted a great quantity of stones, sand, and ashes, (as had always been usual), and occasioned considerable damage to the same villages that it has now completely destroyed; rendering useles a great number of fertile fields, which thenceforth were converted into arid and frightful sands. In the latter part of October of that year the last eruption happened, and caused more damage to those villages.

Since that time we had not remarked | served that in an instant the brow of the any circumstance indicative of the exist- volcano was covered by it. We had never ence of the volcano, and therefore all the seen a similar eruption, and were immeapprehension that it had formerly inspired diately convinced that a river of fire, was gradually dissipating. Consequently, was coming towards us, and was about its extensive and spacious brow had been to consume us.' The first thing that converted into a highly cultivated and was done in my village was to secure the beautiful garden. In particular, the inha-holy sacrament from profanation, and bebitants of Camalig and Budiao had planted upon it many cocoa-trees, and every kind of fruit-trees, with a variety of roots and vegetab es; which, while they afforded an agreeable perspective, supplied, by their excellent productions, many industrious families with food.

take ourselves to a precipitate flight. The swiftness with which that dreadful tide rolled towards us, did not give us much time either for reflection or conversation. The frightful noise that the volcano made caused great terror, even in the stoutest hearts. We all ran terrified, and filled In this state was the volcano on the first with the greatest dismay and consternaday of February last. No person reflected in tion, endeavouring to reach the highest and the slightest degree upon the damages and most distant places, in order to preserve losses that so bad a neighbour had been in ourselves from so imminent a danger. The the habit of occasioning. We had become | horizon began to darken, and our anxieties persuaded, in consequence of so long a redoubled. The noise of the volcano consilence, that it was now completely extin- tinually increased; the darkness augmented; guished, and that all those subterraneous and we continued our flight for the preserconduits were closed, through which it at-vation of our lives, removing further and tracted to itself and kindled the combustible materials, which it had formerly so continually thrown out. Nor had we seen or remarked any signs which might indicate to us beforehand what was about to take place. In the former eruptions, there were heard, a considerable time previous, certain subterraneous sounds, that were sure presages of them. It also exhaled almost continually a thick smoke, by which it announced them. But upon the present occasion, we remarked nothing of all this. It is true, that on the last day of January we perceived some slight shocks; but we scarcely noticed them, on account of their having been very frequent since the earthquake that we experienced on the 5th of October, of the year 1811. On Monday night the shocks increased. At two in the morning, we felt one more violent than those we had hitherto experienced. It was repeated at four, and from that hour they were almost continual, until the eruption commenced.

further from an object so terrific. But notwithstanding the swiftness with which we run, we were overtaken in our disastrous flight by a heavy shower of huge stones, by the violence of which many unfortunate persons were in a moment deprived of life. This unforeseen and cruel circumstance obliged us to make a pause in our career, and to shelter ourselves under the houses; but flames and burnt stones fell from above, which in a short time reduced them to ashes.

Who is capable of making an exact relation of scenes so sad and melancholy, and of presenting them to the public in the same manner that they occurred? Which of us thought to escape with life, upon beholding such manifest signals of Divine justice? As for myself, I remembered in those dreadful moments the disastrous fate of the cities of Pentapolis, and I was then persuaded that the unfortunate villages of Camarines were about to suffer the same unhappy catastrophe. Terrible reflections, it is true, but founded upon the immorality of manners which had long been remarked in those villages!

Tuesday dawned, and I scarcely ever remarked at Camarines a more serene and pleasant morning, or a clearer sky. I observed, however, that the ridges nearest In this dreadful situation, we called upon to the volcano were covered with a mist, God, in such manner as we could, from that I supposed to be the smoke of some the bottom of our afflicted and almost house thereabouts that had been on fire in broken hearts, beseeching him for pardon the night. At eight o'clock on that fatal and mercy. It became completely dark, morning the volcano began suddenly to and we remained enveloped and immersed emit a thick column of stones, sand, and in the most thick and palpable darkness, ashes, which with the greatest velocity comparable only to that which in the time was elevated in a moment to the highest of Moses was witnessed in Egypt. From part of the atmosphere. At this sight we this moment reflection is at an end, advice were astonished, and filled with the ut- is no longer given, and no person recognimost dread, and especially when we obses another. The father abandons his

children, the húsband his wife, she remembers not her beloved spouse, and the children forget their parents. No one thinks that he can assist his fellows, because all believe that they are about to die.

At about ten in the forenoon it ceased | to rain heavy stones, and each one endea voured to remain in the situation he then was, waiting until the rain of thick sand which succeeded it should also cease, or shou'd terminate the existence of us all. until some new and unforeseen calamity

We thus continued unti! half past one in the afternoon, at which hour the noise of the volcano began to diminish, and the horizon to clear a little, at sight of which there was revived in us the hope of life, which until then had been almost wholly extinguished. At about two in the afternoon it became entirely clear, and we began to perceive distinctly the lamentable and dreadful ravages that the darkness had hitherto concealed from us. We saw with terror the ground covered with dead bodies, part of whom had been killed by the stones, and the others cousumed by the fire. Two hundred of those perished in the church of Budiao; thirty-five in a sin

But as man, even in the most critical and destitute situations, endeavours by all possible methods to preserve life, each one of us, for this interesting object, made use of all the means and expedients that could be resorted to, in the terrible condition to which we were reduced. Of what various and different methods did not we, who have escaped with life, avail ourselvs, that we might not perish at that time? In the houses we now found no shelter. It was necessary to abandon them with all haste, in order not to perish with them. To go out uncovered, was to expose one's self to a danger not less imminent; because the stones that fell were of an enormous size, and fell as thick as rain itself. It was necessary, that we might not die in the one or the other manner, to cover ourselves and de-gle house in that village. The joy that all fend ourselves as well as we could. We did felt at having preserved life through such in so. Some covered themselves with hides, minent dangers, in many was, instantly conothers with tables and chairs, others with verted into the extremity of sorrow at find boards and tea trays. Many took refuge ing themselves deprived of their relations, in the trunks of trees, others among the friends, and acquaintances. There, a father canes and hedges, and some hid them-finds his children dead; here, a husband selves in a cave, which the brow of a mountain offered them. Those only of us survive, who had the good fortune to protect themselves by one or other of those methods; but those who were in the open air, with nothing at hand with which they could cover themselves, almost all perished, or were wounded.

The horrid and frightful noise of the volcano increased to its utmost; the shower of stones and thick sand augmented; the burning stones and meteors continued to fall, and in a very short time reduced to ashes the most beautiful villages of the province of Camarines. Would you have signs more analogous to those that are to take place at the last judgement? The animals of the mountain descend precipi tately to the villages to seek in them a secure asylum. The domestic animals ran terrified with the greatest disorder and affright, uttering cries that indicated their approaching end. Nothing interested us in those dreadful moments but the preservation of our own lives. But, alas Divine justice had already marked and pointed out, with the finger of Omnipotence, a great number of victims, who were to perish in this day of wrath and fury, in every respect very similar to what we read in the holy Scriptures concerning the day of the last judgement.

his wife, and a wife her husband; particu
larly in the village of Budiao, where there
were very few who had not lost some of
their nearest connexions. In another
place, at every step one met innumera-
ble other unhappy wretches extended upon
the ground, who, though not deprived of
life, were wounded or bruised in a thousand
ways. Some with their legs broken, same
without arms, some with their sculls frac-
tured, and others with their whole bodies
full of wounds. Such were the mournful
objects that presented themselves to us dur
ing the remainder of that afternoon, many
the following days; the rest remaining
of whom died immediately, and others on
abandoned to the most melancholy fate,
in want even of necessary food.
without physicians, without medicines, and

A horrible and mournful day it was, the remembrance of which will ever be indelibly engraven upon our hearts. Not one of us then thought to escape with life. Death presented himself to us in various and frightful shapes, threatening to deprive us of life by different and horrible methods. But the powerful hand of our beneficent and sovereign God restrained him. At his commanding voice, pale death was appalled. He trembled, groaned, and left us. He flees, terror-stricken, to the caverns of the earth, and there began to mourn and

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lament the spoils which he was about to make, and of which he had been deprived. He thought on that day to bave imbrued more than usually his scythe with blood; but he was obliged to humble himself before him who governs the empires, and at whose voice the infernal regions shake with fear.

The sad result of the misfortunes of that day has been the total ruin of five villages in the province of Camarines, and the principal part of Albay; the death of more than twelve hundred unfortunate persons, and many others severely wounded; the loss of every thing that the survivors possessed in the world, being left without clothing, without animals, without the prospect of a harvest, and without a morsel fit to cat; the mournful and unhappy fate of many, who have been left orphans, abandoned to Divine Providence; others widows, with the loss of four, five, and even more children; the total destruction of their churches and parochial houses, with every thing they contained: in consequence of which the sacraments could not be administered to such as died of their wounds the succeeding days, and who were buried without any pomp or ceremony; and the many infants who have been since born, have from necessity been baptized with common water, because the circumstances in which we were placed did not permit it to be otherwise.

ON STEAM BOATS.

The Newspapers have lately amused themselves, and their readers, with the terrors of more than one sea-port, into which a vessel navigated by steam has entered, in its passage from Glasgow, or Greenock, where it was built, to the Thames, where it is intended to use it. The description is amusing; and as these vessels are becoming popular among us, we have thought a slight memorandum of their history, by Robertson Buchanan, Esq. [Philosophical Magazine, for March. 1815.] would prove acceptable and useful. Mr. Fulton, the American, who was a great promoter of such vessels [whom we knew when he was in England] is lately deceased: whether his papers may contain further plans, or improvements on those already constructed, we do not know; but, we know that he had a variety of projects lying by him; some of them good, some bad, and as we conjecture, the major part middling,

HISTORY OF THE STEAM BOAT.

So early as the year 1801, a vessel propelled by steam was tried on the Forth and Clyde inland navigation, but was laid The present appearance of the volcano aside, among other reasons, on account of is most melancholy and terrific. Its side, the injury it threatened to the banks of the which was formerly so cultivated, and canal by the agitation of the water: and which afforded a prospect the most pic- as far as I can learn, the same objection turesque, is now nothing but an arid and still subsists to the use of steam-boats on barren sand. The stones, saud, and ashes, artificial canals so narrow as those usual which cover it,are so astonishing in quantity, in Great Britain. That objection, howthat in some places they exceed the thick-ever, I should think, does not apply to some of those of Holland and other coun~ ness of ten or twelve yards; and in the very spot where lately stood the village of trics on the continent. Budiao, there are places in which the cocoatrees are almost covered. In the ruined villages, and almost through the whole extent of the eruption, the ground remains covered with sand to the depth of half a yard, and scarcely a single tree is left alive. The crater of the volcano has lowered, as 1 judge, more than 20 fathoms; and on the south side discovers a spacious and horrid mouth, which it is frightful to look at. Three new ones are opened at a considerable distance from the principal crater, through which also smoke aud ashes are incessantly emitted. In short, the most beautiful villages of Camarines, and the principal part of that province are converted into a barren sand.

The first attempt on any scale worthy of notice, to.navigate by steam on the river Clyde, was in the year 1812*. A passage boat of about 40 feet keel and 10% feet. beam, having a steam-engine of only three horses' power, began to ply on the river. Since that period the number of boats has gradually increased.

Besides three vessels which have left the Clyde, there are six at present plying on the river, two of which carry goods as well as passengers. They have on the

The first steam-boat in America was launched at New York on the Srd of October 1807, and began to ply on the river between that city and Albany, a distance of about 120 miles.

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