DRY FOGS. 249 



terranean by reason of it; and it was just as 

 thick on the summit of the highest Alps ! Its 

 properties were peculiar. It was said to have 

 a strong disagreeable odour, and in some places 

 a viscid acrid liquid is said to have been depo- 

 sited by it. The greatest alarm prevailed ; 

 men's hearts failed them for fear. More ter- 

 rible visitations were expected. Public prayers 

 were earnestly made to avert the apparently 

 impending doom of all Europe; and such an 

 agitated state of the public mind was probably 

 never known. A tremendous volcanic eruption 

 in Iceland burnt up seventeen villages, and 

 ejected such a mass of matter as would defy the 

 united efforts of the whole human race to 

 remove, each man taking away as much as he 

 could carry. Awful thunderstorms visited the 

 continent, desolated France, and destroyed a 

 large number of human beings and cattle in 

 England. It was a time of terror, of tumult, 

 and of universal excitement. The summer of 

 1783 saw at length its termination ; violent 

 electric phenomena, with storms of wind and 

 rain, dispersed it, and before the autumn all 

 was gone ; the plague was removed. During 

 the whole period that it had lasted a severe 

 epidemic catarrh something similar, probably, 

 to influenza affected men and animals. 



These remarkable years were singular as 



