»AP. -^M 



72 ELECTRIC PHENOMENA. [chap, 



shortly before entering the ground, divides itself into 

 separate branches. 



The neighbourhood of the Rio Plata seems peculiarly 

 subject to electric phenomena. In the year 1793,* one of 

 the most destructive thunderstorms perhaps on record 

 happened at Buenos Ayres : thirty-seven places 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 thunderstorms 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 equilibrium? 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 afterwards : the 

 house belonged to Mr. Hood, the consul-general 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 run, was blackened. 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 gunpowder, and the frag- 

 ments 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 volatilised, for a smelling-bottle, which stood on the 

 chimney-piece, was coated with bright metallic particles, 

 which adhered as firmly as if they had been enamelled. 



* Azara's " Voyage," vol. L, p. 36. 



