prevalent Disorders, Sfc. 9 with Volcanic Emanations. 429 



in Yorkshire, and numerous others in Germany; besides 

 thunder storms on the 21st and 22d, and violent gales tilL 

 the 27th. During the gale of the 26th (which commenced 

 here in Dorsetshire with hail and rain), about ten at night, 

 a number of detached clouds were rapidly propelled from 

 w. to e., across a clear sky, each cloud discharging blue sheet 

 lightning of a most vivid kind, without thunder, and offering 

 a spectacle as interesting as unusual at the season ; this was 

 followed by heavy rain on the 26th and by a rainbow of pecu- 

 liar brilliance on the 27th. If, then, the hurricane at Algiers 

 were not in connection with earthquakes, perhaps some of these 

 subsequent phenomena were. 



The month of March also offered some striking atmosphe- 

 rical derangements. During the thirteen first days, there 

 were continuous and most violent gales ; on the 6th, a hurri- 

 cane in Paris, doing great damage ; and, on the 8th, a tre- 

 mendous fall of snow in Westmoreland ; whilst, on the 3d, ail 

 Suabia was visited by a tempest of unexampled fury, the 

 lightning destroying at least forty churches. These gales varied 

 from s.w. to n.w., and were everywhere attended by lightning, 

 thunder, and hail. On the 13th, occurred also a violent 

 tempest of thunder, hail, and wind, in Norfolk. On the 13th 

 and 14th, Vesuvius commenced an eruption, which was re- 

 newed on the 25th, and which was followed by a most violent 

 eruption on the 1st of April. On the 27th of March the ice 

 broke up in the Neva *, at which time occurred violent gales 

 and unseasonable cold in England and France, with the wind 

 n.e. ; and on the 2d of April occurred such a thunder storm at 

 Oswestry as was never before remembered, continued with 

 equal intensity at Walsall on the 3d, while a frightful storm, 

 occasioning many wrecks, occurred in the Levant. The sudden 

 chill, with ice and snow, in Canada, England, Russia, France, 

 and Rome, from April 26. to 30., points to a most extensive 

 derangement of temperature. At Rome, the weather never 

 was so cold. (Diario di Roma.) 



The last preceding facts have been introduced, not with a 

 view to encumber these pages with additional examples from 

 the present period, but to illustrate what I have advanced 

 about the meteors as electrical, to the latest date which affords 

 instances in point. My intention was to have stated the facts 

 from the American Journal, and to have left them to the judg- 

 ment of the reader ; but it appeared better, at the risk of 



* From 1726 to 1789, the ice never broke up before March 15., nor 

 ever later than April 27. (Tooke's Russian Empire.) 



