476 METEOEOLOGY. 



and everything looking desolate. We proceeded on our course, how- 

 ever, and arrived at our destination drenched and awe-struck. The ruin 

 had not extended so far as Candalie, and it was diiBcult to make them 

 comprehend the cause of the nervous and agitated condition in which 

 we arrived ; the Eeis Effendi asked me if I vras ever so agitated when 

 in action ? I answered no, for then I had something to excite me, and 

 human means only to oppose. He asked tlie minister if he was ever so 

 affected in a gale of wind at sea. He answered no, for then he could 

 exercise his skill to disarm or render harmless the elements. He asked 

 him why he should be so affected now. He replied, "From the awful 

 idea of being crushed to death by the hand of God with stones from 

 heaven, when resistance would be vain, and when it would be impious 

 to be brave." He clasped his hands, raised his eyes to heaven, and ex- 

 claimed, " God is great!" 



Up to this hour, late in the afternoon, I have not recovered my com- 

 posure ; my nerves are so affected as scarcely to be able to hold my pen 

 or communicate my ideas. The scene Avas awful beyond all description. 

 I have witnessed repeated earthquakes, the lightning has played, as it. 

 were, about my head ; the wind roared, and the waves have at one 

 moment thrown me to the sky, and the next have sunk me into a deep 

 abyss. I have been in action, and have seen death and destruction 

 around me in every shape of horror; but I never before had the feeling 

 of awe which seized upon me on this occasion, and still haunts, and I 

 feel will ever haunt me. I returned to the beautiful village of Buyuc- 

 dene. The sun wt>8 out in all its splendor; at a distance all looked smil- 

 ing and charming, but a nearer approach discovered roofs covered with 

 workmen repairing the broken tiles ; desolate vineyards, and shattered 

 windows. My porter, the boldest of my family, who had ventured an 

 instant from the door, had been knocked down by a hailstone, and had 

 they not dragged him in by the heels would have been battered to 

 death. Of a flock of geese in front of our house, six were killed, and 

 the rest dreadfully mangled. Two boatmen were killed in the upper 

 part of the village, and I have heard of broken bones in abundance. 

 Many of the thick brick tiles witli which my roof is covered are 

 smashed to atoms, and my house was inundated by the rain that suc- 

 ceeded this visitation. It is impossible to convey an idea of what it 

 was. Imagine to yourself, however, the heavens suddenly frozen over, 

 and as suddenly broken to pieces in irregular masses, of from half a 

 pound to a pound weight, and precipitated to the earth. My own ser- 

 vants weighed several pieces of three-quarters of a pound, and many 

 were found by others of upward of a pound. There were many which 

 fell around the boat in Avhich I was that appeared to me to be as large 

 as the swell of the large-sized water decanter. I have heard of a stout 

 tree in my neighborhood, into the crotch of which a mass of ice fell 

 which split the tree as though it had been riven by a wedge of iron. 



