June, 1835. meteorological phenomena. 



433 



before the earthquake of 1770- In the same manner it is 

 related, that, at the destruction of Oran, a druggist fled with 

 his family, because observing accidentally a few minutes 

 before the earthquake, the height of the mercury in his baro- 

 meter, he perceived that the column sunk in an extraordinary 

 manner. I know not whether we can give credit to this 

 assertion/' Mr. Alison, in a letter dated Valparaiso, informs 

 me, that just before the earthquake of November, 1822, the 

 mercury in the tube of the barometer standing in his store, 

 sank beneath the graduated part. The tube was a bent 

 one ; nineteen inches being exposed, and the lowest gradu- 

 ated part corresponded to twenty-six English inches. With 

 this third case, and more especially considering the un- 

 questionable fact of rain so frequently following severe 

 earthquakes, even at the most unusual seasons, I cannot con- 

 clude otherwise, than that there exists some connexion be- 

 tween the subterranean and atmospheric disturbances, of 

 which we are at present quite ignorant. 



Mr. Miers,t in his account of the Valparaiso earthquake, 

 November 19th, 1822, .has added one more to the list of 

 coincidences between luminous meteors and earthquakes. 

 He says one of very considerable size, in apparent dimen- 

 sions little less than the moon, was observed in the south- 

 ward, at no very great elevation. It traversed a considerable 

 arch of the heavens, leaving behind it a long train of light ; 

 and when it disappeared, it seemed to do so from explo- 

 sion — as it leaped in the same manner as those which eject 

 meteoric stones ; but in this instance no noise was heard to 

 attend its extinction, nor was it known that any stones 

 fell. This occurred about half-past two o'clock in the 

 morning after the earthquake." The eart]iquake itself 

 happened at half-past ten o'clock. Mr. Miers then adds, 

 that a friend of his travelling on the night of the 4th of 

 November, about a fortnight preceding the great earthquake, 

 observed at a little past eleven o'clock in the northern sky. 



* Miers s Travels, vol. i., p. 395. 

 VOL. III. 2 F 



