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 Linnaeus 
named Merlucim. 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 [Xiphiurus 
Capensts), 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 lliobamba, iu 
the year 1797, recorded by Humboldt, when the shocks were not 
attended by any outbreak of the neighbouring volcauos, " a singular 
mass called Moga," 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 {Pimelodes Cyclopum) 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 fiimerolla on Vesuvius, about the month of May or June, and which 
were observed again, as usual, last year. 
