62 MALDONADO. [chap. hi. 



destructive thunderstorms perhaps on record happened at Buenos 

 Ayres : thirty-seven places within the city were struck by light- 

 ning, 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 pos- 

 sible 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 

 eifects 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 fragments had 

 been blown off with force sufficient to dent the ^v•all on the 

 opposite side of the room. The frame of a looking-glass was 

 blackened, and the gilding nmst have been volatilized, 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. 



