THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 



73 



where the bell-wires had run, was blackened. The metal had 

 been fused, and although the room was about fifteen feet 

 high, the globules, dropping on the chairs and furniture, had 

 drilled in them a chain of minute holes. A part of the wall 

 was shattered, as if by gunpowder, and the fragments had 

 been blown off with force sufficient to dent the wall on the 

 opposite side of the room. The frame of a looking-glass was 

 blackened, and the gilding must have been volatilized, for a 

 smelling-bottle, which stood on the chimney-piece, was coated 

 with bright metallic particles, which adhered as firmly as 

 if they had been enamelled. 



