62 MALDONADO. (omar. 111. 
destructive thunderstorms perhaps on record happened at Buenos 
Ayres : thirty-seven places within the city were struck by light- 
nine, 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 bodigs 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. 
