1 2 Supposed Connection of Meteoric Phenomena, 



kindness of H. E. Lloyd, Esq. (whose name is so honourably 

 mentioned in the preface to Dr. Babington's translation of 

 Hecker's Black Death), for the assurance that the Loire 

 and the Rhone, Switzerland, the Tyrol, and Lombardy, 

 were also affected by violent floods, on August 27. and 28. 

 On the former day, at half-past ten p.m., an earthquake 

 occurred at Portsmouth, Chichester, Arundel, &c. It was 

 preceded by lightning and thunder in London, Hants, &c, 

 and succeeded, in Dorset, by fog, which hung about the 

 hills, and eventually became rain from the s.e. At the time 

 of the shock, rain fell in torrents in London: there had been 

 a violent storm on the 26th, from three to five, p.m., the ba- 

 rometernot affected. This shock was immediately succeeded by 

 the aurora. On Aug. 19. a column of air of an immeasurable 

 height alarmed the inhabitants of Bancourt (France): its 

 summit was surmounted with a halo, and from it proceeded 

 terrible explosions : the tornado which accompanied it did 

 dreadful damage.* (Courrier du Pas de Calais.) A similar 

 tornado, with thunder and lightning, occurred at Kilroot, 

 near Carrickfergus on June 12. (so also on Sept. 2. 1775, 

 at the same place) : some persons were carried by it over 

 the fields. (Belfast News Letter.) On Aug. 25. H. M. S. 

 Thetis had a heavy gale from n.e. in the Irish Channel, 

 with squalls and rain, and at half-past four a.m. 26. she saw 

 a water-spout, followed by wind from s.e. and foggy weather. 

 This phenomenon is most unusual in these latitudes, though 

 there is a record of one in Lancashire, on June 3. 1718. 

 (Philosophical Transactions, 1719.) The month of August, 

 1834, seems, from the preceding statements, memorable in the 

 annals of meteorology. It will be seen above, that there was 

 a dreadful storm in London on July 18.; now on that day 

 two gentlemen from Savoy ascended Mont Blanc. The 

 thermometer fell 1 2° below the freezing point, Reaum. (27° 

 below freezing, Fahr.) : at half past four p.m. occurred the 

 most dreadful hurricane on the mountain ever known in that 

 country. (Const itutionnel.) The coincidence of these storms is 

 not more remarkable than many of the previously mentioned 

 coincidences ; but it serves to connect the arguments I have 

 advanced, and shows that the derangements of the atmo- 

 sphere have not been partial only, but general. But to con- 

 nect them and the other named phenomena with earthquake or 

 volcano is my chief object. Vesuvius commenced a most violent 

 eruption at the very time alluded to: from July 18. to 24. 



* Lord Lovell relates a similar account of a fiery whirlwind, at Holkham, 

 Norfolk, in Aug. 1741. (P. T., 1742.) 



