TUB CLIMA'! fc.-, 



30th of the same month continued iil...iit tluc.- onai ters of an hour. It commenced two or three 

 niili-s (.) the S. K. ot' tin- cit \ , .striking ..m- hoii.-e and killing a woman an it paosed over ui, and 

 expended it.selfi.. tin- northward. No Midi event UN u thunderbolt at Santiago had erer been 

 in its aimaU. Tin- storm, also, WUH accompanied by rain, though the fall WM 

 m. .derate, and the atmosphere dcared away much as it does after electrical discharge* on 

 .summer afternoons in the 1'nited States. The t liird occurred after midnight, continued more 

 than an hour, uud was more violent than the j.i -m-ding. Terror was added to it ringing peal* 

 of thunder hy their reverberating echoes from and among the Andes; and when it struck near 

 the same place UK the preceding holt, the HMghboffttiontMtoed their vicinity the gpecial locale 

 of Divine wrath. Then- were no forewarning instrumental indications; the barometer was 

 about its usual height, the temperature moderate all the- preceding day and evening, and a rain- 

 bow at sunset rather promised clear weather than a night-storm. Lightning most unusual in 

 that direction had been seen to the N. W. on the preceding evening, over the coast range, and 

 this was followed by light showers of rain, a heavy fall taking place after the thunder-storm. 



Summer lightning that form of electrical explosion in which, without audible thunder, 

 or any indication of storm, the whole cloud is illuminated at the same instant and continues 

 visible for some seconds is a frequent phenomenon of the spring evenings. It is usually seen 

 over the higher Andes to the E.N.E., but sometimes extends as far south as the summits in 

 the direction of San Jose, flashing almost continuously for more than an hour at a time. 

 Travellers have crossed the elevated passes of the mountains at these times without witnessing 

 the phenomenon, and only learned on arrival at Santiago how brilliant had been the displays 

 seen in directions of the road they must have occupied at the same moment. So bright and 

 incessant were the corruscations after one of the great earthquakes, that many persons on the 

 coast believed the old volcanoes to the eastward had re-opened, and a statement to this effect 

 was made in the Valparaiso papers. Whilst all previous experience on the coast and plain 

 seemed to prove them exempt from thunder and lightning, storms of that kind were quite com- 

 mon within the greater cordilleras ; and few crossed the Andes without being witnesses to 

 these battles of the elements during" some portion of their journey. 



One other phenomenon, regarded by physicists of the present day as scarcely less intimately 

 allied with electricity than with disturbance of magnetic equilibrium, remains to be mentioned 

 in connection with the spring months. I refer to the Aurora Australis, of which (or some 

 closely-resembling light) there was one display during our residence in Chile, viz : shortly 

 after midnight of the 21-22d November, 1851. After several days of clear weather, for forty- 

 eight hours previous the sky had been completely overcast ; and though the clouds partially 

 broke away three hours before the aurora, by midnight they had rolled back again dense as 

 ever. There was nothing unusual in either pressure or temperature, and only a more moist 

 atmosphere than is customary in November. Without wholly passing away, soon after mid- 

 night the mass of clouds lying in strata to the southward broke into cumuli, and a luminous 

 bank was perceived below the Southern Cross, then bearing S.S.E. At first it was supposed to 

 be only a portion of the Milky Way ; but, whilst looking attentively, bands or streamers of light 

 passed through interstices of the clouds to altitudes of nearly 40. These faded, brightened, and 

 changed inclination, locality, and color, not less remarkably than I had often observed during 

 auroral displays in the northern hemisphere, and I could but think this an analogous phenom- 

 enon. At 1 A. M. it had wholly ceased, and a little while after, the sky was again entirely 

 obscured by clouds. Occurrence of the aurora during the continuance of clouds is contrary 

 to an hypothesis recently advanced (before the American Association for the Promotion of 

 Science) ; but, unless we suppose a volcano to have burst out in the Andes, and burned 

 actively only during the half hour, there is no other mode of expaining the phenomenon 

 mentioned. 



Vegetation makes rapid strides in this season. Pear and apple trees flower within the first 

 fifteen days of September, and the fig-tree and Lombardy poplar are in full leaf before its 



