424 Proceedings of the British Association 



others where forests existed and there was little rain, Humholdt was 

 our great authority on this subject, and he had recorded his opinions of 

 the influence of forests on clinnate. In many districts where forests 

 were cleared and single individuals left, ihese latter soon died from the 

 want of the influence of their neighbors. Dr. Lanhester pointed out 

 that according to the laws of vegetation, plants must be su[)pried with 

 water in a h'quid or vaporous form for their growth, and that all the 

 facts which had been mentioned, and which at first sight appeared op- 

 posed to each other, might be explained. Thai forests did not always 

 grow in rainy districts arose probably from the waters accumulating and 

 forming morasses in which forest trees would not grow. In districts 

 where there was not much rain there might be much moisture in the 

 atmosphere, — rain h^ general supplied only a very small quantity of 

 the water required by plants. Vegetable physiology afforded no expla- 

 nation of the effects on climate, attributed by sonie observers to forests. 



6. On the Great Earthquake experienced in Chile^ April 2, 1851, from 

 R. Budge, Esq., to VV. Bollaert, Esq., in a letter dated April 17, 

 with Observations by the latter^ 



"The earthquake came westward and, of course, from the east; • 

 which is sufliciently proved from the circumstance of the water in basins, 

 water-jugs, &c., having been spilt over the east side, — fram the clocks 

 whose pendulums vibrated east and west having stopped, while those 

 beating north and south did not, — from walls standing east and west be- 

 ing cracked every way, particularly lengthways, — and from vessels at 

 sea, forty to sixty miles off the land, having felt it at a corresponding hour 

 to the difference of longitude. That it is electric 1 have also grounds 

 for believing ; for h is clear to me that in its course it has instantane- 

 ousfy been stayed, — having turned round things on their base, instead 

 of ihrowing^ them down, at an angle of 20^, which not only in my own 

 house, but in others have occurred, showing a circular motion for at 

 least an instant, 1 had a bust of plaster of Paris and a family medi- 

 cine chest standing on a chest of drawers moved round in this way, 

 while nothing occurred to my house (built, however, purposely on my 

 own plan for resisting earthquakes) except the removal oirt of place of 

 a few tiles. A large brick chinrney, well stayed above with iron stays, 

 was divided at a certain height from the ground in a horizontal line, 

 and the upper part was twisted round over the lower to about the same 

 angle. In some houses which stood firm from being frame built, though 

 cracked in all directions, the furniture in the rooms, particularly up 

 stairs, appeared as if some fiend had been among them, making them 

 his playthings, some upsel,some turned round, &c. 



I conceive, therefore, now, that since earthquakes are little felt to the 

 eastward of the Cordillera and severally so to the westward, along the 

 whole range, that chain of mountains must be the point of attraction 

 for the electricity of the atmosphere, and thai it then follows westward 

 a proper conductor in the earth, finally leaving the earth in the sea,— 

 for bow can a ship at sea be shaken as a house on shore, which has 

 been the case, by any other element, for water being capable of com- 

 pressioa if driven against a solid frame, as a loaded ship is, will yi^|a 

 to the resistance, and the blow given to the vessel is different ahogeih- 



