1874,] L. SchwendleY'^Oii UartJi-Ct^Tents, 141 



The gateway on the land side is uninjured, but without the wooden 

 gates. 



At Cochin the chief relics of Portuguese dominion are, the ruined 

 Cathedral tower, and the building now used as the Protestant Church. 

 The Cathedral, after serving the Dutch as a warehouse, was blown up by 

 the English in 1806. The tower which remained standing after the explo- 

 sion, now serves as a light-house. 



The church in present use was originally dedicated to St. Antony, but 

 formed a part of the Franciscan monastery. It has been renovated two or 

 three times, and in the course of these changes most of the tombstones 

 Portuguese and Dutch, with which it is crowded, have been transposed. 

 There are also several tombstones in other parts of the town. 



The volume of the Chronista de Tissuary from which we have trans- 

 lated the notes regarding Bassein gives a list of Portuguese inscriptions at 

 Cochin, but they are mostly the epitaphs of private individuals. It is, 

 however, worthy of note that the great Vasco da Gama himself was first 

 buried in the Franciscan Church, now used by the English, at Cochin. His 

 body was subsequently removed to Portugal, but there is a tradition 

 that one of the tombstones in the church, which appears to bear the 

 name of Gama, belonged to his original tomb. This, however, may be 

 a mistake, as we do not find the inscription in the list given by the Chro- 

 nista de Tissuary. 



2. On JEarth'Currents. By L. Schwendeee, Esq. 



(Abstract.) 



Mr. Schwendler said that the phenomenon of earth- currents seemed 

 to be intimately connected with the earth-magnetism and its variations. 



He would, however, point out from the beginning that though the two 

 phenomena, " earth-magnetism'^ and '' earth-currents,'' were undoubtedly 

 connected with each other, it was by no means established as yet that 

 they were cause and efiect, or, what certainly seemed to be far more 

 probable in the present state of knowledge on the subject, parallel effects 

 of one and the same general but entirely unknown cause. 



The three elements of the earth-magnetism, intensity, inclination and 

 declination, had been quantitatively and most accurately determined in al- 

 most all civilized parts of the world (Calcutta excepted) by the introduc- 

 tion of Gauss' and Weber's well known system of magnetic measurements, 

 and though the results obtained had been very general and satisfactory, 

 establishing the most interesting facts of diurnal and secular periods of 

 variation in the three magnetic elements, and had also been of direct prac- 

 tical benefit to navigation, still the physical nature of the phenomena had 



