Captain S. Brown’s Deacri'ption of the 
to be five or six feet in diameter. Could this be hydrogen gas 
emanating from some volcanic submarine cavern, and which, issu- 
ing out of the water in an aeriform column, sought to come in 
contact with the electricity of the atmosphere ? This gas taking 
fire, continued to burn till the inflammable matter was consum- 
ed. 
On the day after the first earthquake, at 4> o’clock in the 
evening, we saw a true meteor, which, describing in the air a 
vast parabola from east to west, fell into the sea beyond our 
island. A similar meteor fell at Cephalonia, near the town, 
and also into the sea, without being accompanied with any 
explosion. Ever since this great disaster, which has reduced 
us to the most distressing condition, our atmosphere has ap- 
peared in continual agitation. Nature itself seems to have 
changed its course. We find ourselves suddenly in a different 
climate. The thermometer which, in the month of January^ 
was at 65° Fahrenheit, stands at present exposed to the north 
only at S5°. Since the 1st February, the sea has been in a con- 
tinual storm. From the information which has reached us, 
this confusion appears to be universal in all the ports of the Me- 
diterranean. 
Zante, 9^.st February 1821. 
Art. III. — Description of the Trinity Pier of Suspension at 
Newhaven^ near Edinburgh, By Captain Samuel Brown j 
R. N. In a Letter to Dr Brewster, 
Dear Sir, 
It was my intention to have furnished you with a description 
of the Union Bridge of Suspension, which I erected over the river 
Tweed, in the summer of 1820 ; when I found myself anticipat- 
ed by Mr Stevenson, civil engineer, who was present at the 
opening of the bridge on the 26th July 1820. As he has gone 
into the detail of the dimensions of the iron- work, and the mode 
of uniting it, with a description of the piers or abutments of the 
bridge, it is unnecessary for me to enter upon that part of the 
subject. 
