FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. 



351 



perhaps the worst that the Cape ever experienced, was that of the 4th 

 December, 1809. Among the curious effects produced by it, we will 

 mention the following : — In Table-bay is now seen a fish belonging to 

 the genus Gadus, and probably identical with that which Linnseus 

 named Merlucius. It seems satisfactorily proved that the appearance 

 of this species at the Cape immediately followed the formidable earth- 

 quake of which we speak ; it was never seen or heard of in these 

 latitudes before the 4th of December, 1809. Dr. Andrew Smith, in 

 his Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa, speaks of a similarly 

 curious coincidence as regards another fish — the King's Fish {Xiphiiirus 

 Cajpensis), which, according to this author, appeared in the precincts 

 of the Cape after an earthquake ; it is not mentioned which, but at all 

 events it must have been a considerable time back, as the traveller, 

 Barrow speaks of the King's Fish as being found near the Cape in 

 1797." 



We read in an old Spanish proverb, that " things which are very 

 singular are apt to become wonderful." But here are instances of like 

 phenomena from another source ; — At the destruction of Riobamba, in 

 the year 1797, recorded by Humboldt, when the shocks were not 

 attended by any outbreak of the neighbouring volcanos, a singular 

 mass called Moya,'' he says, " was uplifted from the earth in 

 numerous continous, conical elevations ; the whole being composed of 

 carbon, crystals of Augite, and the siliceous shells of Infusoria." The 

 same celebrated writer, speaking of the volcanos of the Andes, says, 

 " Cavities, which are either on the declivity or at the foot of the moun- 

 tain, are gradually converted into subterranean reservoirs of water, 

 which communicate by numerous openings with mountain springs, as 

 we see exemplified in the highlands of Quito. The fishes of these 

 rivulets multiply, especially in the obscurity of the hollows ; and when 

 the shocks of earthquakes, which precede all eruptions in the Andes, 

 have violently shaken the whole mass of the volcano, these subterranean 

 caverns are suddenly opened, and water, fishes, and tuffaceous mud are 

 all ejected together. It is through this singular phenomenon that the 

 inhabitants of the highlands of Quito became acquainted with the 

 existence of the little Cyclopic fishes [Fimelodes Cydopum) termed by 

 them prenadilla." 



It has not yet been well ascertained whence come the numerous 

 dead insects that Palmieri has often spoken of as filling up the mouths 

 of fumeroUa on Vesuvius, about the month of May or June, and which 

 were observed again, as usual, last year. 



