lOS CLIMATE PUMICE. Sept. 



known to naturalists, Mr. Earle made careful drawings of 

 them, and Mr. Darwin preserved many in spirits. We pro- 

 cured plenty of good fresh water from wells near the beach, 

 and small wood for fuel in their immediate neighbourhood. 

 The climate is delightful, and healthy to the utmost degree^ 

 notwithstanding such extensive flats, half-covered with water, 

 and so many large mud-banks. Perhaps the tides, which rise 

 from eight to twelve feet, and run two or three knots an hour, 

 tend to purify the air ; indeed, as the whole inlet is of salt 

 water, there may be no cause for such effects as would be 

 expected in similar situations near fresh water. 



In our rambles over the country, near Port Belgrano, we 

 every where found small pieces of pumice-stone ; and till Mr. 

 Darwin examined the Ventana, supposed they had been thrown 

 thence : he has, however, ascertained that it is not volcanic ; 

 and, I believe, concludes that these fragments came from the 

 Cordillera of the Andes.— (See Vol. III. by Mr. Darwin.) 



Falkner, in whose accounts of what he himself saw I have 

 full faith, has a curious passage illustrative of this supposition ; 

 and it is not impossible — nor even, I think, improbable — that 

 some of the pumice we saw fell at the time mentioned in the 

 following extract : — " Being in the Vuulcan, below Cape St. 

 Anthony, I was witness to a vast cloud of ashes being carried 

 by the winds, and darkening the whole sky. It spread over 

 great part of the jurisdiction of Buenos Ayres, passed the 

 river of Plata, and scattered its contents on both sides of the 

 river, insomuch that the grass was covered with ashes. This 

 was caused by the eruption of a volcano near Mendoza, the 

 winds carrying the light ashes to the incredible distance of 

 three hundred leagues or more." — Falkner, p. 51. 



As an indisputable, and very recent instance of the distance 

 to which volcanic substances are sometimes carried, I might 

 mention the fact of H.M.S. Conway having passed through 

 quantities of pumice-stone and ashes, in latitude 7° north, and 

 longitude 105° west, being more than seven hundred miles from 

 the nearest land, and eleven hundred from the volcano near 

 Realejo, whence it is supposed that they proceeded ; but as it is 



