METEOROLOGY. 



metry : it is therefore natural to infer, that it was an iris pro- 

 duced by the before- mentioned cause. 



*' The variety of its colours was the effect, not merely of the 

 decomposition of the light, but likewise of the quantity re- 

 fradted : where it was least, the black was represented ; and 

 where greatest, the ash-colour. As the beams of the moon 

 extinguished the faint splendour of these stars, it is not extra- 

 ordinary that, on its rising, we should have been deprived of 

 this rare phenomenon, as would happen in the case of the 

 lunar irises, on the approach of the blushing dawn of Aurora. 



** That goddess has already begun to illumine the plains ; 

 and the cries of the shepherd oblige me to put out the candle, 

 to terminate my philosophical meditations, and to proceed to 

 my agricultural labours.'* 



In the course of the year 1791, five earthquakes, four of 

 which occurred in the capital, and the fifth in the city of Pasco, 

 are recorded in the Peruvian Mercuries. The details relative 

 to them are introduced by the following reflections. 



There is not any country in the world, in which naturalists 

 ought to apply themselves more sedulously to the observation 

 of earthquakes, than in ours. The greater part of their history 

 presents tragical scenes, in which the violent convulsions of 

 the earth have not only destroyed the fine productions of the 

 hands of man, but have likewise deranged many of those of 

 Nature, by which they were supported. As not any physical 

 revolution happens in the globe, without being preceded by 

 certain warnings emanating from the very dispositions whence 

 they originate ; if, by the dint of a constant application, we 

 could succeed in characterizing them, we might perhaps escape 

 many of these ravages. The annals of natural philosophy 



3 E relate, 



