396 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



municated with each other by small condu6tors. The first of 

 them, attacked by some portion of water, &c. having taken 

 fire, the igneous matter was successively imparted to the fol- 

 lowing ones, which, by their explosions, and by the collision 

 and precipitation of the detached fragments, represented the 

 discharges of artillery. 



On the 26th of December, a shock of an earthquake, the 

 most considerable which had occurred in the course of the 

 year, was felt in Lima. Its duration was one minute thirty 

 seconds, somewhat more or less ; and its dire6bion S. E., N. W. 



According to Don Antonio Ulloa, the continual vapours by 

 which the sky is obscured, in the winter season, in every part 

 of low Peru, are occasioned by the prevalence of the north 

 winds ; but this opinion is controverted by a correspondent of 

 the Peruvian Mercury on the following grounds. That, in 

 1 79 1 , on the days when the dews fell abundantly, as well as 

 on those which preceded them, the winds blew constantly from 

 the S. and S. W., and not from the N. The cause of the 

 above phenomenon was not therefore to be ascribed to the 

 latter winds. ** It may be obje6led," he observes, *' that these 

 winds, having a considerable elevation, may not be perceived 

 in the lower part of the atmosphere, their operation being en- 

 tirely confined to the higher part. This might be granted, pro- 

 vided the southerly winds had ceased to blow in the inferior 

 region of the air ; but as they have been unremitting, and have 

 maintained the same disposition as in the preceding seasons, a 

 similar obje6tion cannot be allowed. The blowing of contrary 

 winds, even although one should be inferior, and the other 

 superior, instead of fixing the vapours, would dissipate them, 

 and would prevent them from being condensed, which can 

 alone enable them to produce the wetting fogs." 



Meteorological 



