ELECTRIC PHENOMENA. 79 



lightning, shortly before entering the gi'ound, di- 

 vides itself into separate branches. 



The neighbourhood of the Rio Plata seems pe- 

 culiarly subject to electric phenomena. In the 

 year 1793,* one of the most destructive thunder- 

 storms perhaps on record happened at Buenos 

 Ayres : thirty-seven jilaces within the city were 

 struck by lightning, and nineteen people killed. 

 From facts stated in several books of travels, I am 

 inclined to suspect that thunder-stonns are very 

 common near the mouths of great rivers. Is it not 

 possible that the mixture of large bodies of fresh 

 and salt water may disturb the electrical equilibri- 

 um ? Even during our occasional visits to this 

 part of South America, we heard of a ship, two 

 churches, and a house, having been struck. Both 

 the church and the house I saw shortly aftei^wai'ds: 

 the house belonged to Mr. Hood, the consul-gen- 

 eral at Monte Video. Some of the effects were 

 curious : the paper, for nearly a foot on each side 

 of the line where the bell-wires had I'un, was black- 

 ened. The metal had been fused, and although 

 the room was about fifteen feet high, the globules, 

 dropping on the chairs and furniture, had drilled 

 in them a chain of minute holes. A part of the 

 wall was shattered as if by gunjiowder, and the 

 fragments had been blown off with force sufficient 

 to dent the wall on the opposite side of the room. 

 The frame of a looking-glass was blackened, and 

 the gilding must have been volatilized, for a smell- 

 ing-bottle, which stood on the chimney-piece, was 

 coated with bright metallic particles, which ad- 

 hex'ed as firmly as if they had been enamelled. 



* Azara's Voyage, vol. i., p. 36. 



