58 MALDONADO. [CHAP. in. 



were several other groups of fragments, the original sites of which 

 without doubt were near. All occurred in a level area of shifting 

 sand, sixty yards by twenty, situated among some high sand-hil- 

 locks, and at the distance of about half a mile from a chain of hills 

 four or five hundred feet in height. The most remarkable circum- 

 stance, as it appears to me, in this case as well as in that of Drigg, 

 and in one described by M. Eibbentrop in Germany, is the number 

 of tubes found within such limited spaces. At Drigg, within an 

 area of fifteen yards, three were observed, and the same number 

 occurred in Germany. In the case which I have described, 

 certainly more than four existed within the space of the sixty by 

 twenty yards. As it does not appear probable that the tubes are 

 produced by successive distinct shocks, we must believe that the 

 lightning, 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 destruc- 

 tive 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 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 

 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. i. p. 3G. 



