136 Supposed Connection of Meteoric Phenomena, 



was occasioned by a vacuum from below, and not above ? It 

 is to be remarked, that the heat, in all the West India islands 

 and the adjoining continent, has been very much greater than 

 ever remembered by the oldest inhabitant. I have had 

 many opportunities of ascertaining this from the actual ob- 

 servations of personal acquaintances. 



The meteors on Sept. 29., and the aurora on Sept. 30., 

 are named above (VII. 615.); also the meteors of Oct 1, 

 and 3. (Ibid.), on which latter day the thermometer at Fare- 

 ham, in the vicinity of Portsmouth and Chichester, recently 

 so often shaken, stood at 123°, the highest degree in the 

 scale of the instrument observed. 



On Oct. 2., a very thick and extraordinary fog extended 

 over many parts of England, especially the whole southern 

 coast, London and Bristol being included in its range. On 

 the same day a heavy sea fog, accompanied with destructive 

 gales, occurred off St. Andrews, New Brunswick, and in 

 much of the space intermediate between England and America. 

 We have here the extremities of an arc of 2500 miles simul- 

 taneously and similarly affected. This fact shows, again, the 

 great extent of atmospherical and terrestrial affections. The 

 wind, in England, was n.e.; and the snow, on Oct. 1., with 

 the thermometer below zero, lay deep on the ground at 

 Riga. This snow was preceded by a heavy fall of hail on 

 Sept. 30. which lay 2 in. deep. The fog was, therefore, 

 probably caused by a passing chill from n.e. cooling the 

 air down below the temperature of the sea.* This chill, 

 like the snow and cold at Riga, was of short duration ; for 

 the symptoms of winter in the north have been brief; the 

 ground being again free from snow and under cultivation at 

 Riga in December. A similar cause, doubtless, produced the 

 fog off St. Andrews, New Brunswick, a warm sea and a cold 

 icy atmosphere. In addition to the earthquake at Bologna, 

 on Oct. 4. (VII. 615.), the thermometer at Fareham again 

 marked 123° on the 6th ; while, on the same day, Carthagena, 

 in Spain, was visited by severe shocks, at 3 and 7 a,m., 

 accompanied by very striking phenomena. The sky was 



his work on Epidemic Disorders, has, I am told, established the actual con- 

 nection of epidemics with volcanic eruptions at a distance. The inform- 

 ation in the former part of this note was derived from an announcement at 

 Naples, dated Oct. 10. 1834. 



* In a very interesting essay on the Indian summer, read before the 

 Baltimore Academy (Dec. 16. 1833), it is stated, from facts observed in 

 America, that " hazy weather is the result of a southerly or easterly cur- 

 rent supervening to a cold northerly one." The whole essay is worthy of 

 a careful perusal. (Amer. Journal, xxvii. 145.) 



