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It will no doubt be readily admitted by both the learned gentlemen whom I have quoted, above, that the atmosphere of the whole earth is connected and forms but one mass and is of various degrees of temperature, and that it is connected with the earth, and that our globe forms but one mass.

If this earth is disturbed, the atmosphere is also disturbed, but the ability to measure the extent of the disturbance, or to ascertain when it takes place in one section of the globe by the peculiar state of atmosphere in another, is the great desideratum.

Since the commencement of the present year, a friend has sent me a copy of Darwin's Observation made during a voyage round the world, in which I find the facts he recorded sustains the views I have expressed as to a connection of convulsions with storms and as to several points being affected at the same time. He has not referred to equilibriums; and it appears was not aware that Hecla, Vesuvius and Etna, although far apart, had been convulsed simultaneously, for he expressly states he was ignorant of such fact. After my minute observatious had been continued many months, accounts reached here that Mount Hecla, in Iceland, which had been in a state of quiet since 1786, was on the 2d day of September, 1845, terribly convulsed; I then stated in my published observations that I was led to the conclusion from the observations I had made that our atmosphere and earth would be extensively convulsed for a considerable length of time. The following shows that the bold opinion I then expressed has been awfully sustained by facts.

Sept. 2, 1845.

Mount Hecla in Iceland, terribly convulsed for the first time since 1786.

Sept. 20, 1845.

The northern shore of Lake Ontario, between Port Hope and Colborne, convulsed. The water of the lake on this shore receded rapidly for a few moments and again returned with great force, and increased quantity and thus continued for some time. The shore is bound by a horizontal strata of bituminous fossiliferous lime stone which have embeded in it stone of a description that the heat of the lime kilns have no effect on. This locality was once convulsed and immense quantities of bitumen and mud discharged overwhelming every thing living in its waters in one mass of destruction. I examined this locality for several days in 1844, and obtained numerous fossils that had been preserved by the chrystalization of the bitumen.

Nov. 25, 1845. Earthquake at Deerfield, New-Hampshire, shook down stone walls, cellar walls, stopped clocks, &c.

Dec. 23, 1845.

Earthquake at Memphis, Ten., at half-past 9 P. M.

Jan. 30, 1846.

Earthquake at the Belgian Settlement of Santa Tomas, near the equator.

Feb. 28, 1846.

Earthquake at Cincinnati at about 8 A. M.

March 18, 1846.

Earthquake at Valparaiso, South America.

March 23, 1846.

Earthquake at Maysville. Ky., at 20 minutes before 1 A.M. Same day at half-past 7 A. M., Earthquake at the town of Cuba, in the Island of Cuba.

April 22, 1846.

Earthquake at Catania, in Sicily.

April 28, 1846.

Earthquake at Catania, in Sicily, and same day shock of an earthquake was felt at Santa Cruz, south side of the Island of Cuba.

May 30, 1846.

Earthquake at Newburyport, and Salem, Mass.

June 16, 1846.

Earthquake at Guadaloupe and Martinique.

June 21, 1846.

Earthquake at Vera Cruz, Mexico.

June 25, 1846.

Earthquake at Smyrna, in Asia.

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Oct. 29, 1846. Earthquake at Deerfield, N. H., at 9 P.M. Oct. 31, 1846. Earthquake at Deerfield, N. H., in the night. Oct. 1846. Earthquake at Algiers in Africa. Day of the month not ascertained, Nov. 12, 1846. Earthquake at Deerfield, N. H., at 20 minutes before 8 P.M.

Nov. 28, 1846. Earthquake at Porto Rico, West Indies. Dec. 2, 1846. Earthquake at Deerfield, N. H. Dec. 1846. Earthquake at Marseilles, in France, date not ascertained.

January 8, 1847.

Earthquake at Grafton Harbor, Colborne, &.c, Upper Canada, at about 3 P. M.

January 14, 1847.

Earthquake at Rice Lake, Upper Canada, about 15 miles from Grafton Harbor.

STEAMERS AND EARTHQUAKES.

On the 15th of January, the British government steamer Sphynx of 1050 tons burthen, nad 500 horse power was wrecked on a reef of rocks on the Isle of Wight.

The same day the Steamer Sirius, (the first British steamer which crossed the Atlantic) was lost on the Irish coast and 12 persons who attempted to get on shore were drowned.

It will be seen the above that these steamers were lost the day following the earthquake at Rice Lake.

On the 25th and 26th of November the Steamer Atlantic made a dreadful shipwreck in Long Island Sound, and in the above record of earthquakes it will be seen that an earthquake traversed Scotland at a few minutes before 1 A.M., of the 25th of November, making but a few hours difference in time.

From the 19th to 21st of September the Steamer Great Western was perilled in a terrific storm and on the 22d the Great Britain was mysteriously drawn upon the rocks and wrecked. An Earthquake is recorded above, at Cape Haytian on the 15th of the same month.

The Steamer Swallow was mysteriously drawn upon a rock at Athens, in the Hudson River, and stranded, on the 7th of April 1845, and that day and evening three earthquakes in succession convulsed the city of Mexico.

On the 29th of November, 1846, the packet ship Thos. P. Cope, was burnt by ligntning which came down mixed with snow, in long. 65, lat. 41, 15. It will be seen in the above catalogue that an earthquake was felt at Porto Rico the 28th of November, the day previous,

There is reason to apprehend from the above recorded facts. that the silicious points containing metallic ingredients (in the water) become magnetized by the shock of an earthquake and that an iron vessel, or vessel of wood containing large quantities of iron and floating in a dense fluid with a fluid of much lesser density resting upon them, is drawn by the attraction of these points or rocks, so charged directly upon them. I make the suggestion and at the same time give the above facts as my premises.

E. MERIAM.

RICE LAKE AND GRAFTON HARBOR. In the summer of 1844, my beloved daughter MARY, (whose decease is recorded on the opposite page) and myself visited the very locality which was convulsed on the 8th and 14th of January, as noticed above, and made extensive collections of fossils from the bituminous beds which have there been formed by ancient eruptions. Here she was presented with a volume of the Holy Scriptures imprinted at London in 1599 -248 years ago by a relative residing on the very ground which overlays this bituminous formation, and this very copy of the Sacred Book was at her bedside when the vital spark was passing away to the realms of light and when the ground on which the donor resided was the theatre of a convulsion.

METEORLOGICAL RECORD.

I had intended to have presented in this series of the Municipal Gazette now issued from the press, my meteorlogical observations made hourly for the month of August, September, October, November and December, 1846, and January 1847, together with those made hourly at Saltville, Va., by W. P. Milnor, Esq., for the same months, and those made at Syracuse in this State, by L. W. Conkey, Esq., for the same period, compiled under each separate days' date, together with the accounts of earthquakes, thunder-storms, hail-storms, hurricanes, rain-storms, &c., on the same days in various sections of the globe, but the labor of compiling is too great to be accomplished in season for this issue. I shall endeavor to present the entire record in the next number of this paper. Hourly observations are rarely made in this country. The three localities I have named are in salt water districts, and the two latter, I think, were once volcanic.

(From the New-York Farmer and Mechanic' of Jan. 21.) Died, at Brooklyn, on the 15th inst., after a painful and lingering illness, Mrs. MARY S. M. SEAMAN, wife of DAVID K. SEAMAN, and daughter of Ebenezer and Mary S. Meriam, aged 25 years, 7 months and 24 days.

This afflicted dispensation has removed from the earth one of its loveliest daughters, and shrouded an affectionate circle of relations and friends in mourning. A few months since witnessed the plighted faith and fond vows of this young bride at the altar, and last Sabbath witnessed, before the same holy altar, the hallowed remains of that fair but attenuated form, prepared for the bridal of Death. But, afflictive and sad as is this dispensation of Providence to the bereaved circle of surviving friends, they are not called to mourn as those who mourn without hope. The departed one was enabled calmly and sweetly to pass down into the dark valley, relying on the merits of her Divine Savior, and cheerfully yielding up her spirit into the hands of Him who gave it. It may be truly said of the deceased, that none knew her but to love and esteem her virtues, and there are none that knew her but will mourn her loss. We sincerely sympathize with our afflicted friend and correspondent, and trust that he will feel that she has but exchanged the affectionate solicitude of an earthly parent for the fullness of her heavenly Father's love.

She sleeps

SHE SLEEPS IN JESUS.

but how calm and how peaceful her rest,
She sleeps!-but she slumbers on Jesus' breast-
She sleeps all serenely, how sweet her repose-
Forever have ceased all her conflicts and woes.
Yes, soul-stricken mourner, look up from this dust!
Her spirit has fled to the home of the just ;-
A halo of glory surpassingly bright,
Encircles her form in its heavenly light.

Her trials are ended temptations are o'er,
Her heart will by sorrow be saddened no more ;
Her sighs are all exchanged for the songs that arise,
And swell the sweet chorus that gladdens the skies.

Bright visions of beauty now burst on her sight!
Her Savior she views with ecstatic delight-
Adoring, with angels and spirits above-
How pure are her transports! how perfect her love!

With angels, and seraphs, and spirits above,
She warbles the praises of infinite love;
Untiring, unceasing, enraptured in bliss,
Adoring the Lamb that now welcomes her his.
The casket is broken, all faded it lies,-

The jewel now shines a bright gem in the skies;
Then dry all thy tears and thy sorrows suppress,
Until called by thy Savior her form to embrace.

Oh then, re-united, forever in bliss

No sorrow can enter the mansions of peace;
But there in the sunshine of glory untold,
Replete are the joys that enrapture the soul.

W. H. S.

The last verse of the lines in the first column
"CORNELIA," was mis-
of page 673, written by
printed-we reprint the verse corrected.

It hath fled, on its viewless wings of light,
To the Maker who gave it birth;

But this lesson was breathed in its silent flight,-
Set not your affections on earth!

Copy of a note written in September 1846 by DEAR
MARY to her SISTER ELIZA.

DEAR SISTER :-Did MOTHER tell you about our
arrangement to visit GREENWOOD ?-perhaps not,
well this is our plan-JANE expected her FATHER
yesterday, but he did not arrive so we are not sure of
all going. David has engaged two horses for one
carriage and he has also another carriage for Mr.
MARVIN, and we expect him over with two more
horses, and we wish you to go with us.-DAVID says
there will be plenty of room, so will you not go?
In great haste,

MARY.

From the Brooklyn Evening Star of Feb. 12, 1847.
LINES

WRITTEN ON THE DEATH OF MRS. MARY S. M. SEAMAN.
By her Friend, JULIA C. RINGWOOD.

I saw her by the altar stand,

A young and a happy bride;

I saw her plight her heart and hand
To him who was her pride;
And in her low melodious tone

She uttered forth the vow

That made her until death his own....
I seem to hear it now.

A twelvemonth had not passed away
Ere joy was changed to gloom :

I saw her by that altar lay

All shrouded for the tomb;
Upon her breast and in her hand

Her bridal flowers were laid....

The flowers that had adorned the bride
Now decked her for the grave.

A song on her bridal eve I heard
Came to me by her grave-
"Lady of beauty, Time flies on,
And roses soon must fade."
But see!-an angel chariot waits!
Bright wings to her are given;
She enters now the pearly gates,
And MARY is in Heaven!
The angels with their golden harps
Strike music from each string;
Thousands of ransomed tongues and hearts
Make Heaven with anthems ring.
Farewell to thee, thou gentle one;
Thy home is in the skies;
We cannot see thy starry crown
With our weak earthly eyes-
But through our Saviour's dying love
Our sins on earth forgiven,
We'll meet thee in thy home above,
And dwell with thee in Heaven.

Extract from a letter written by DEAR MARY to her SISTER ELIZA, dated Cobourg U. C., June 17, 1844.

DEAR SISTER :-Last week I visited PORT HOPE -it is a beautiful place, so many groves in its neighbourhood with pretty white cottages peeping through the trees giving to it a picturesque and romantic appearance; there are also many Church edifices, mostly upon the hills, which add much to the beauty of the place-but there is one draw-back upon the village which sadly mars its prosperity-viz: the numerous distilleries in its neighbourhood-these generate the very spirit of evil which casts the blight of poverty, misery and wretchedness upon many-yes, upon many a family within the reach of the poisonous fluid which those establishments send forth. The very name of this place-" PORT HOPE" ought to banish such destructionists from its borders, for there is little hope of reformation of the drunkard while the machines for making inebriates are tolerated. In my last letter from Cobourg I mentioned that the worm was making ravages among vegetation, but the worm of the "STILL" is a thousand times more destructive, for it not only consumes the staff of life but actually feeds on mortal flesh, and not even satisfied with these but also devours the human mind that yields to its influences."

The waters of Lake Ontario are of great depth and very transparent. About a mile from the shore and four miles west of this place is Gull Island, upon which a light-house has been erected. Mr. S. informs me, that within the last 15 years he has visited it when there was nearly an acre of ground, or more properly speaking rock (for it is all solid rock) visible above the water, and now it is entirely covered even where the rock is highest to the depth of 15 inches.

For the New-York Municipal Gazette.
TO E. M.

I know not how the mother feels,
When o'er her cradled hope she kneels,
Nor with what thrills of holy joy

A father eyes his first born boy;

What rapturous joyance knows the child

On which parental love has smiled-
For mine has been the lonely lot
On which affection beameth not.
Yet hath this heart its idols made,
And worship madly to them paid-
Albeit the rapture even then
Was marred by this prophetic ken:

I knew at every glad hope's birth
That death would dash it to the earth;-

And though my tongue may silence keep.
My eye so well has learned to weep,

I cannot view a stranger's woe
But its full fount must overflow.

Forgive me, sir, I would not seek
To check thy grief with counsels weak-
Nor yet the hackneyed truth repeat
"God ordered it, and it is meet,"
Nor would I say how good and fair-
How graced with sense and talents rare,
How well beloved child, sister, bride-
How deeply mourned thy daughter died.
The first, I trust, thou knowest well,
The latter who like thee could tell?
Nay, but whene'er I see the trace
Of soul-felt suffering on the face,
It matters not what state or name,
The right of brotherhood I claim;
My Savior's mandate I would keep,
To weep with those who stricken weep
Since He who in his mercy gave

That precept, bending o'er the grave,
E'en with the keys that bound the trust,]
With hallowing tears bedewed the dust.
MARGARETTE MCNARY.

Feb. 18, 1847.

Extract from a letter written by DEAR MARY to her SISTER ELIZA, dated Colborne Upper Canada, May 24, 1844.

DEAR SISTER :-" While we were at Rochester we visited MOUNT HOPE CEMETRY. The ground itself is beautiful-about one hundred acres enclosed and laid out in good taste-it is the most singular piece of ground I ever saw-indeed it would be difficult to find a place like it-it is a continuous succession of small elevations-the highest of which is called the pinnacle, commands a most beautiful view of the country for miles around. It was Sunday when we visited the Cemetry-on that day no carriages or horses are allowed to be driven through the grounds; all seemed peaceful and quiet-but the birds were warbling so wildly and yet so sweetly, that an imaginative person might almost imagine them the spirits of the departed hovering over their last resting places-the Cemetry itself I can best * when speakdescribe by using the words of * ing of MOUNT AUBURN. IT IS GRAVES."

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THE GARDEN OF

In Colborne there is one well but 11 feet deep; another close by it was sunk to the depth of 50 feet without reaching water, and a well was sunk at Cobourg to the depth of 150 feet with the same result. There are salt springs to the west of this place a few miles, the water of which is said to produce a pail of salt from four pails of the saline waters. I should think that these springs could be worked to a profit but am not chemist enough to determine this fact.

EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENCE.

357 Roads,}

EDINBURGH, June 1st, 1846.

My Dear Friends:

In accordance with a promise I made to you before I left New-York, that I would write a letter to you, I cheerfully comply. I must first beg to be excused for the great delay of this letter, and assure you that I have only just arrived in Edinburgh the day before yesterday. I believe that it was understood that I was to write when I settled in Scotland, and I have on that account reserved my letter to the present time. I hope that it has not proved any cause of disappointment to you. I remained so long in England after my arrival, and then in Scotland, in parts where it is was utterly impossible to write a definite or satisfactory letter. I hope these unavoidable delays will be sufficient excuse for my not sooner writing by your very kind request.

After I saw you in New-York, (thinking that I was going to be delayed longer than I wished by the Hottinguer,) I went on board a ship for London, to sail that very day, but meeting with some delay I then thought it better to return to my old berth in the Hottinguer, which I did on the day of sailing, and only two hours before. We had a very stormy passage of twenty days, but I was not in the least sick, but enjoyed very excellent health. Before commencing my studies in Scotland, I thought to enjoy a few weeks journey, and remained some time in England, and then went to the west of Scotland.

Though the voyage was most prosperous, yet there was one consideration which obtruded itself-namely: that to revisit my native land, my parents, and my warmest friends. This same ocean, with its billows; these same waves, with their terrific endurance, must be hazarded, and the thousands of miles over the briny deep must be retraced-considerations, which though they inspired hopes, also elicited fear.

The transmission of a stranger from America to a country older in discovery, the site of deeds recorded in ancient and modern history, the birthplace of revolutions, civil and religious, and the early residence of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers. These topics will form sufficient material for study for the short time of stay in this country, and the time I can devote to these subjects.

Just before coming to Edinburgh, I visited the birthplace and the last resting place of a talented but unlettered bard of Scotland-Burns. There are reflections of a very interesting character connected with this individual-the consideration that the unlettered mind may rise superior to the difficulties and privations of this life, and engrave their names in the book of fame, and in the affections and literature of future generations must be, and is a bright polar star to those on whom fortune has not smiled, and on whose minds literature has not shed its cheering beams. I have employed my leisure in investigating the school system of this country, and I think there is no place where learning is more universal; it is almost impossible for any class, from the poorest to the richest, to remain in a state of absolute ignorance. I think some of the principles might yet be introduced into America with manifest advantage. Science is no longer a being of the closet and the libraries of the rich and opulent, holding itself aloof in mysterious abstraction from the general mass of mankind; but it mingles with the common affairs of life, and shines for all, it shines on all. It is found in the smithy and at the forge; it is in the factory, the foundry and the machine shop; it is in the mine, upon the farm, and in the kitchen; it now enables the poorest peasant to contemplate the material system, from the planets in the sky to the riches in the bowels in the earth, and make them almost subservient to his own ends. Finally it makes this life a thousand times more comfortable and desirable to the mass of mankind. I do not mean in any way to detract from the praise due to the American system, but I have been particularly struck with the utility and universality of the Scottish system.

I have been endeavoring to ascertain the reason of those unhappy states of social life in which so many of the laboring classes in Great Britain are thrown, and I am happy to state that the accounts received in America of the melancholy destitution of so many individuals, are greatly exaggerated. I am convinced that any executive exaction is not the cause of the

penury of the lower classes; the fluctuations of British commerce (and consequent rises and depressions in the price of labor) are the unavoidable causes of the want of employment too often found in this country, and I am satisfied that as long as there is so vast a manufacturing and so proportionably small agricultural area exposed to dross residues of foreign markets, there will be reverses in the state of the manufacturersreverses that are beyond the control of the wisest government. The Corn law is so nearly expired, that all hope of its recovery by the protectionists is at an end. If the principles of free trade so commenced should be reciprocated by the United States Government, I have no doubt that it would be very beneficial to the two nations equally, and be the commencement of a new era in the world, capable of exerting a wholesome influence on the nations adopting it, and an honor to the originator. The real influence of the repeal of the Corn law in Great Britain cannot at present be told until it has been in operation, but so great a step must have a great effect.

The Oregon notice of the United States has been received, but I believe no step has been taken on it yet; there has been a rumor that the Boundary has been settled, but I think not, as no official account has yet found its way among the people; I hope it may be settled in an amicable manner, and I think that the British Government have not been behind in doing their part to that desirable end; you may hear of some ultimatum from official quarters by this steamer. The India war has completely closed, and is at present restored; there is however some peace indication of some rupture somewhere, by the great and continual preparations for war, with the real object I am unacquainted. A new branch of royalty appeared in England last week. I like your weather better than here; it is too rainy, though at present it is very warm and dry. We are so much further east that our time is about four and a half hours faster than yours, so that we are much earlier risers. The nights are quite different here to what they are in your country, being quite light at ten o'clock in the evening, and again at two in the morning, the four hours being only twilight. Though I keep myself as easy as possible, yet I very often wish myself a little nearer home. I very fortunately found a Canadian in Edinburgh, who lived quite near my father's, and with whose friends and neighbors I am well acquainted. He is the only person with whom I am acquainted in Edinburgh, except the professors, and is going to return with me in the spring if we are spared; so you see I have one long year yet to be away, at the end of which, perhaps, I might be inclined to stay altogether, but I can assure you that is not my intention now. am now in the Royal Infirmary in this city, and in the University, This is the most splendid city that I ever saw, abounding with monuments and public buildings, four or five hundred years old; they interest me very much and call up many associations which I have learned in history and find verified here. This being the great site in Scotland where the martyrs suffered for the cause of a Protestant church in the time of the reformation; many popish superstition and cruelty, and of their victims, still remain, and many of great antiquity. I am very sorry that I have no news of any more consequence to the lady readers than the dry details of the news of a foreign country, but in the absence of any thing else I was obliged to resort to the general news of the country. E. MERIAM.

VIRGINIA CORRESPONDENCE. WYTHEVILLE, FEBRUARY 3, 1847.

E. MERIAM, Esq.

DEAR SIR-I wrote you the state of the weather yesterday, predicting a snow storm. At 8 o'clock, P. M., on last night the thermometer was at 56 and this morning at 6 A. M. at 50 with the wind from the West-all night it had been from the South West, in a strong gale. At 8 o'clock the wind suddenly veered from the North West and has so continued with increasing force till now 10 P. M.

At half-past 7 o'clock this morning the snow began to fall in thin frosty mists the temperature being 35 at 9 o'clock A. M. 25 at 11 o'clock, A. M. and at 3 P. M. 20 and at this time 9 o'clock is 18 above zero Fahranheit, and by morning it will be down to 10 degrees above zero.

The fine white snowy mist has fallen all day driven by most furious blasts of wind in close succession. This is the first Northwester I have witnessed worthy of notice this winter-it is a wind of great strength moving 40 or 50 miles hourly and has been indeed a wintry storm.

I apprehend an Eastern or South Eastern wind has swept the Gulph and may have greatly endangered southern coasting vessels within the last 60 hours. But my observation of weather has been always of local character never examining correllative effects in remote places.

The freeze now operates from the air upon the surface of the ground, the latter having as yet no tendency to abstract heat, but is rather giving out heat

to the air.

I have heretofore stated to you that at the same time zones of heat and cold in various degrees do extend from the South West toward the North East controlled to a strong extent by varieties of elevation and of the character of the stratified rocky crust of the earth. Sometimes these belts are numerous and extending hundreds of miles in length, but they are subject to equations with one another and often great circular districts manifest a sudden collapsing into extreme coldness certain electro magnetic vicissitudes of the air and the terrene superstructure always attend such extensive changes of temperature. The barometer often exhibits evidence that such change is about to happen and the barometrical sinking of the mercury is as often the result of interior alleration of specific weights as of superior atmospheric variation of pressure. It is these interior effects in the earths crust which upon the approach of an earthquake make the air musky and so often force a light shower of rain and which also disturb the polarizing action of the needle and the barometrical grade.

There is no doubt winds are but demonstrations of chemical equations in the sea of atmosphere analogous to the tide relations of the ocean under gravitating tendencies. Every wind, every tide, every storm or earthquake must have its counterpart represented by greater or less concentrativeness at the antipodes or elswhere and hence your method of enquir ing into such Physical phenomena will after extended analysis be admitted to be well founded—many connections will be found to be simultaneous as is the pulsation of the heart throughout the animal body while other connections occur successively like the passage of fluids from one to other parts of the living body.

The point of interchange between negative and positive polarities of Electro-magnetism is neutral as to attractions and repulsions and as one or other of these states of centrality or dispersion gains ascendency over atoms or properties of atoms, so will be the sensible developements. Luminosity is one of the sequences of excess in either the repletive or the privitive states of atoms or properties suddenly induced. The ancients conceived the whole globe to possess powers of individualization somewhat analogous to those manifested in a living animal. Not one atom was esteemed to change its condition without inducing instant and consecutive changes in other atoms both in near contact and remotely situated. And granting the truth of this last position, it is plain that in meteorology immense complexity of causation exists, so that in judging of weather predictions, we can only compare groups of passing phenomena and not all their minor relations, in approximating the truth.

The animal instincts, a part from rational induction, form the main basis for weather predictions impending, but, experience and reasoning may extend such investigations so as to reach conclusions having much of remote certainty connected with them. It is my opinion that chemistry has not yet entered its real theatre of profitable research. In modern times its votaries may be said to have been chiefly engaged in examining figures of chrystallization without enquiring into those simple and complex properties which force atoms into certain arrangements in preference to assuming other configurations. Chemists have yet to examine and compare the non-materialized properties which were congenetal with atomic existance, but which may and do subsist without dependence upon the parental atoms. Properties too, which, not only attain seperated and peculiar powers for selfconservation, but also, become capable of action upon atoms and upon other conclaves of pure properties.

Without enquiries of this cast the philosophic chemist and Physiologist never can develope the true condition of those phenomena representing organic life or those other phenomena called light, gravitation, and Electro-magnetism common to both animated and inanimate states of being.

I write to give you the state of our miserably bad weather and I guess at this time you too have Northwesters roaring over your city-I hope no fires have this day seized on our cities or towns.

Feb. 4th.-Thermometer 5 o'clock A. M., this day, was 8 degrees above zero and at 8 o'clock 12 and at 10 o'clock 14th the Northwest and Northwinds continued all last night-the sky is clear and bright to-day. I suspect this Northwest storm crossed all the region from the lakes Southward to Vicksburgh and was too violent every where for much snow to fall this side of the Mississippi. It is a sequence of the warm and long prevailing gulph winds which encircled the Southern United States and hence it is probable this Northwester has crossed the Blue Ridge and entered upon the ocean at least as far as the line of the Gulph Stream.

Yours respectfully,

DARWIN'S OBSERVATIONS.

TERRIBLE EARTHQUAKE.

February 20th.-This day has been memorable in the annals of Valdivia for the most severe earthquake experienced by the oldest inhabitant. I happened to be on shore, and was lying down in the wood to rest myself. It came on suddenly, and lasted two minutes, but the time appeared much longer. The rocking of the ground was very sensible. The undulations appeared to my companion and myself to come from due east, and whilst others thought they proceeded from south west; this shows how difficult it sometimes is to perceive the direction of the vibrations. There was no difficulty in standing upright, but the motion made me almost giddy: it was something like the movement of a vessel in a little cross ripple, or still more like that felt by a person skating over thin ice, which bends under the weight of his body. A bad earthquake at once destroys our oldest associations: the earth the very emblem of solidity, has moved beneath our feet like a thin crust over a fluid. One second of time has created in the mind a strange idea of insecurity, which hours of reflection would not have produced. In the forest, as the breeze moved the trees, I felt only the earth tremble, but saw no other effect. Capt. Fitz Roy, and some officers were at the town during the shock, and there the scene was more striking, for although the houses, from being built of wood, did not fall, they were violently shaken, and the boards creaked and rattled together. The people rushed out of doors in the greatest alarm. It is these accompaniments that create that perfect horror of earthquakes, experienced by all who have thus seen as well as felt their effects. Within the forest it was a deeply interesting, but by no means an awe exciting phenomenon. The tides were very curiously affected. The great shock took place at the time of low water; and an old woman who was on the beach told me that the water flowed very quickly but not in great waves to high water mark, and then as quickly returned to its proper level; this was also evident by the line of wet sand. This same kind of quick but quiet movement in the tide happened a few years since at Chiloe, during a slight earthquake, and created much causeless alarm. In the course of the evening there were many weaker shocks, which seemed to produce in the harbour the most complicated currents, and some of great strength.

March 4th. We entered the harbour of Conception, while the ship was beating up to the anchorage, I landed on the Island of Quiriquina. The major-domo of the estate quickly rode down to tell me the terrible news of the great earthquake of 20th: "That not a house in Conception or Talcahuano (the port) was standing; that seventy villages were destroyed, and that a great wave had almost washed away the ruins of Talcahuano; of this latter statement I soon saw abundant proofs, the whole coast being strewed over with timber and furniture, as if a thousand ships had been wrecked. Besides chairs, tables, book-shelves, &c., in great numbers, there were several roofs of cottages which had been transported almost whole. The storehouses at Talcahuano had been burst open,

and great bags of cotton, yerba, and other valuable merchandise, were scattered on the shore. During my walk around the island, I observed that numerous fragments of rock, which, from the marine productions adhering to them, must recently have been lying in deep water, had been cast up high on the beach. One of these was six feet long, three broad, and two thick.

The island itself is plainly showed the overwhelming power of the earthquake, as the beach did that of the consequent great wave. The ground in many parts was fissured in north and south lines, perhaps caused by the yielding of the parallel and steep sides of this narrow island. Some of the fissures near the cliffs were a yard wide. Many enormous masses had already fallen on the beach, and the inhabitants thought that when the rains commenced far greater slips would happen. The effect of the vibration on the hard, primary slate that which composes the foundation of the island, and was still more curious: the superficial parts of some narrow ridges were as completely shivered as if they had been blasted by gunpowder. This effect which has been rendered conspicuous by the fresh fractures and displaced soil, must be confined to near the surface, for otherwise there would not exist a block of solid rock throughout Chiloe, nor is this improbable, as it is known that the surface of a vibrating body is affected differently from the central part. It is perhaps owing to this same reason that earthquakes do not cause quite such terrific havoc within deep mines as would be expected. I believe this convulsion has been more effectual in lessening the size of the island of Quiriquina than the ordinary wear and tear of the sea and weather during the course of a whole century.

The next day I landed at Talcahuano, and afterwards rode to Conception. Both towns presented the most awful interesting spectacle I ever beheld. To a person who had formerly known them, it possibly might have been still more impressive, for the ruins were so mingled together, and the whole scene possessed so little the air of a habitable place, that it was scarcely possible to imagine its former condition. The earthquake commenced at half past eleven o'clock in the forenoon. If it had happened in the middle of the night, the greater number of the inhabitants, which in this one province amount to many thousands, must have perished, instead of less than a hundred: as it was, the invariable practice of running out of doors at the first trembling of the ground alone saved them. In Conception each house, or row of houses, stood by itself a heap or line of ruins, but in Talcahunao, owing to the great wave, little more than one layer of bricks, tiles, and timber, with here and there part of a wall left standing, could be distinguished. From this circumstance, Conception, although not so completely desolated, was a more terrible, and if I may so call it, picturesque sight. The first shock was very sudden. The mayor-domo at Quiriquina told me, that the first notice he received of it was finding both the horse he rode and himself rolling together on the ground. Rising up, he was again thrown down. He also told me that some cows which were standing on the steep side of the island, were rolled into the sea. The great wave caused the destruction of many cattle; on one low island, near the head of the bay, seventy animals were washed off and drowned. It is generally thought this has been the worst earthquake ever recorded in Chiloe; but as the very severe ones occur only after long intervals, this cannot easily be known; nor, indeed, would a much worst shock have made any great difference, for the ruin was now complete. Innumerable small tremblings followed the great earthquake, and within the first twelve days no less than three hundred were counted.

After viewing Conception I cannot understand how the greater number of inhabitants escaped unhurt. The houses in many parts fell outwards, thus forming in the middle of the streets little hillocks of brickwork and rubbish. Mr. Rouse, the English consul, told us that he was at breakfast when the first movement warned him to run out. He had scarcely reached the middle of the court-yard when one side of his house came thundering down. He retained presence of mind to remember, that if he once got on the top of that part which had already fallen, he would be safe. Not being able, from the motion of the ground, to stand, he crawled up on his hands and knees; and no sooner had he ascended this little eminence, than the other side of the house fell in, the great beams sweeping close in front of his head. With his eyes blinded, and his mouth choked with the cloud

of dust which darkened the sky, at last he gained the street. As shock succeeded shock at the interval of a few minutes, no one dared approach the shattered ruins; and no one knew whether his dearest friends or relations were not perishing in the want of help. Those who had saved any property were obliged to keep constant watch, for thieves prowled about, and at each little trembling of the ground, with one hand they beat their breasts and cried "misericordia!" and then with the other filched what they would from the ruins. The thatched roofs fell over the fires, and flames burst forth in all parts. Hundreds knew themselves ruined, and few had the means of providing food for the day.

Earthquakes alone are sufficient to destroy the prosperity of any country. If beneath England the now inert subterranean forces should exert those powers, which most assuredly in former geological ages they have exerted, how completely would the entire condition of the country be changed. What would become of the lofty houses, thickly packed cities, great manufactories, the beautiful public and private edifices. If the new period of disturbance were first to commence by some great earthquake in the dead of the night how terrific would be the carnage. England would at once be bankrupt; all papers, records, and accounts, would from that moment be lost. Government being unable to collect the taxes, and failing to maintain its authority, the hand of violence and rapine would remain uncontrolled. In every large town famine would go forth, pestilence and death following in its train.

Shortly after the shock a great wave was seen from the distance of three or four miles, approaching in the middle of the bay, with a smooth outline; but along the shore it tore up cottages and trees, as it swept onwards with irresistible force. At the head of the bay it broke in a fearful line of white breakers, which rushed up to a height of 23 vertical feet above the highest spring tides, their force must have been prodigious; for at the fort a cannon, with its carriage, estimated at four tons in weight, was moved fifteen feet inwards. A schooner was left in the midst of the ruins two hundred yards from the beach. The first wave was followed by two others, which in their retreat carried away a vast wreck of floating objects. In one part of the bay a ship was pitched high and dry on shore, and was carried off, again driven on shore, and again carried off. In another part, two large vessels anchored near together were whirled about, and their cables were thrice wound round each other; though anchored at a depth of thirty-six feet, they were for some minutes aground. The great wave must have traveled slowly, for the inhabitants of Talcahuano had time to run up the hills behind the town and some sailors pulled out seaward, trusting successfully to their boat riding securely over the swell if they could reach it before it broke. One old woman with a little boy, four or five years old, ran into a boat, but there was no body to row it out, the boat was consequently dashed against an anchor and cut in twain; the old woman was drowned, but the child was picked up some hours afterwards clinging to the wreck. Pools of salt water were still standing amidst the ruins of the houses, and children making boats with old tables and chairs, appeared as happy as their parents were miserable. It was, however, exceedingly interesting to observe how much more active and cheerful all appeared than could have been expected. It was remarked with much truth that from the destruction being universal, no one individual was humbled more than another, or could suspect his friends with coolness-that most grievous result of the loss of wealth. Mr. Rouse and a large party which he kindly took under his protection, lived for the first week in a garden beneath some apple trees. At first they were as merry as if it had been a picnic; but soon afterwards heavy rain caused much discomfort, for they were absolutely without shelter.

In Capt. Fitzroy's excellent account of the earthquake, it is said that two explosions, one like a column of smoke and another like the blowing of a great whale, were seen in the bay. The water also appeared everywhere to be boiling, and it became black, and exhaled a most disagreeable sulphurous smell. These latter circumstances were observed in the Bay of Valparaiso during the earthquake of 1822; they may, I think, be accounted for by the disturbance of the mud at the bottom of the sea, containing organio matter in decay. In the Bay of Callao, during a calm

day, I noticed, that as the ship dragged her cable over the bottom, its course was marked with a line of bubbles. The lower orders in Talcahuano thought that the earthquake was caused by some old Indian woman, who, two years ago being offended, stopped the volcano of Autuco. This silly belief is curious, because it shows that experience has thought them to observe that there exists a relation between the suppressed action of the volcanos and the tremble of the ground. It was necessary to apply the witchcraft to the point -where their perception of cause and effect failed and this was the closing of the volcanic vent. This belief is the more singular in this particular instance, because, according to Captain Fitzroy' there is reason to believe that Autuco was no ways effected.

The town of Concepcion was built in the usual Spanish fashion, with all the streets running at right angles to each other; one set ranging S. W. by W., and the other set N. W. by N. The walls in the former directions certainly stood better than those in the latter; the greater number of the masses of brickwork were thrown down towards the N. E. Both these circumstances perfectly agree with the general idea of the undulations having came from the S. W. in which quarter subturenean noises were also heard ; for it is evident that the walls running S. W. and N. E. which presented their ends to the point whence the undulations came would be much less likely to fall than those walls which, running N. W. and S. E. must in their whole lengths have been at the same instant thrown out of the perpendicular; for the undulations, coming from the S. W. must have extended in N. W. and S. E. waves as they passed under the foundations. This may be illustrated by placing books edgways on a carpet, and then, after the manner suggested by Michell, imitating the undulations of an earthquake; it will be found that they fall with more or less readiness, according as their directions more or less nearly coincides with the line of the waves. The fissures in the ground, generally, though not uniformly extended in a S. E. and N. W. direction, and therefore corresponded to the lines of undulation or of principal flexure. Bearing in mind all these circumstances, which so clearly point to the S. W. as the chief focus of disturbance. It is a very interesting fact that the island of S. Maria, situated in that quarter, was, during the general uplifting of the land, raised to nearly three times the height of any other part of the coast.

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The different resistance offered by the walls, according to their direction was well exemplified in the case of the Cathedral. The side which fronted the N. E. presented a grand pile of ruins in the midst of which door cases and masses of timber stood up, as if floating in a stream some of the angular blocks of brickwork were of great dimensions, and they were rolled to a distance on the level plaza like fragments of rocks at the base of some high mountain. side walls running S. W. and N. E., though exceedingly fractured, yet remained standing, but the vast buttresses at right angles to them, and therefore parallel to the walls that fell were in many cases cut clean off, as if by a chisel, and hurled to the ground. Some square ornaments on the copying of these same walls were moved by the earthquake into a diagonal position. A similar circumstance was observed after an earthquake at Valparaiso, Calabra and other places, including some of the ancient Greek temples. This twisting displacement at first appears to indicate a varticose movement beneath each point thus affected; but this highly improbable. May it not be caused by a tendency in each stone to arrange itself in some particular position with respect to the lines of vibration, in a manner somewhat similar to pins on a sheet of paper when shaken. Generally speaking, arched doorways or windows stood much better than any other part of the building. Nevertheless, a poor lame old man, who had been in the habit, during trifling shocks, of crawling to a certain door way, was this time crushed to pieces.

I have not attempted to give any detailed description of the appearance of Concepcion, for I feel that it is quite impossible to convey the mingled feelings which I experienced. Several of the officers visited it before me, but their strongest language failed to give a just idea of the scene of desolation. It is a bitter and humiliating thing to see works which have cost man so much time and labour overthrown in one minute, yet compassion for the inhabitants, was almost instantly banished by the surprise in seeing a

state of things produced in a moment of time which one was accustomed to attribute to a succession of ages, in my opinion, we have scarcely beheld, since leaving England, any sight so deeply interesting.

In almost every severe earthquake, the neighbouring waters of the sea are said to have been greatly agitated. The disturbance seems generally, as in the case of Conception, to have been of two kinds; first at the instance of the shock the water swells high up on the beach with a gentle motion, and then as quietly retreats. Secondly, some time afterwards, the whole body of the sea retires from the coast and then returns in waves of overwhelming force. The first movement seems to be an immediate consequence of the earthquake affecting differently a fluid and a solid, so as that their respective levels are slightly deranged, but the second case is a far more important phenomenon. During most earthquakes, and especially during those on the West coast of America. It is certain that the first great movement of the waters has been a retirement. Some authors have attempted to explain this by supposing that the water retains its level whilst the the land oscillates upwards; but surely the water close to the land even on a rather steep coast, would partake of the motion of the bottom: moreover, as urged by Mr. Lyell, similar movements of the sea have occurred at islands far distant from the chief line of disturbances, as was the case with Juan Fernandez, during this earthquake, and with Madeira during the famous Lisbon shock. I suspect (but the subject is a very obscure one) that a wave, however produced first draws the water from the shore on which it is advancing to break, I have observed that this happens with the little waves from the paddles of a steamboat. It is remarkable, that whilst Talcahuano and Callao, near Lima, both situated at the head of large shallow bays, have suffered during every severe earthquake from great waves Valparaiso seated close to the edge of prefoundly deep water, has never been overwhelmed, though so often shaken by the severest shocks. From the great wave immediately following the earthquake, but sometimes after the interval of even half an hour, and from distant islands being affected similarly with the coasts near the focus of the disturbance. It appears that the wave first rises in the offiing; and as this is of general occurrence the cause must be general. I suspect we must look to the line where the less disturbed waters of the deep ocean join the water nearer the coast, which has partaken of the movements of the land, as the place where the great wave is first generated. It would also appear that the wave is larger or smaller according to the extent of shoal water which has been agitated together, with the bottom on which it rested.

The most remarkable effect this earthquake was the permament elevation of the land; it would probably be far more correct to speak of it as the cause. There can be no doubt that the land around the bay of Concepcion was upraised two or three feet; but it deserves notice, that owing to the wave having obliterated the old lines of tidal action on the sloping sandy shores I could discover no evidence of this fact, except in the united testimony of the inhabitants, that one little rocky shoal now exposed was formerly covered with water. At the island of S. Maria, about 30 miles distant, the elevation was greater; on one part Captain Fitzroy found beds of putrid muscle-shells still adhering to the rocks, ten feet above high water mark, the inhabitants had formerly dived at low water spring tides for these shells. The elevation of this province is particularly interesting, from its having been the theatre of several other violent earthquakes, and from the vast numbers of sea shells scattered over the land up to a height of certainly 600, and I believe of 1000 feet. At Valparaiso, as I have remarked, similar shells are found at a height of 1300 feet; it is hardly possible to doubt that this great elevation has been affected by successive small uprisings, such as that which accompanied or caused the earthquake of this year, and likewise by an insensible slow rise which is certainly in progress on some parts of this coast.

The island of Juan Fernandez, 360 miles to the N. E., was at the time of the great shock of the 20th violently shaken, so that the trees beat against each other, and a volcano burst forth under water close to the shore. These facts are remarkable because this island during the earthquake of 1751, was then also affected more violently than other places at an equal distance from Concepcion, and this seems to show some

subterranean connection between those two points. Chiloe, about 340 southward of Concepcion, appears to have been shaken more strongly than the intermediate district of Valdivia, where the volcano of Villarica was noways effected. Whilst in the Cordillera in front of Chiloe, two of the volcanoes burst forth at the same instant in violent action. These two volcanoes, and some neighboring ones, continued for a long time in eruption, and ten months afterwards were again influenced by an earthquake at Concepcion. Some men cutting wood near the base of one of those volcanoes, did not perceive the shock of 20th, although the whole surrounding province was then trembling; here we have an eruption relieving and taking the place of an earthquake as would have happened at Concepcion, according to the belief of the lower orders, if the volcano of Antuco, had not been closed by witchcraft. Two years and three-quarters afterwards Valdivia and Chili were again shaken, more violently than on the 20th, and an island in the Chonos Archiphelago was permanently elevated more than eight feet. It will give a better idea of the scale of these phenomena, if (as in the case of the glaciors) we suppose them to have taken place at corresponding distances in Europe then would the land from the North Sea to the Mediterranean have been violently shaken, and at the same instant of time a large tract of the eastern coast of England would have been permanently elevated, together with some out lying islands, a train of volcanoes on the coast of Holland would have burst forth in action, and an eruption taken place at the bottom of the sea, near the northern extremity of Ireland; and lastly, the ancient rents of Auvergne Cantal and Mount d'Or, would each have sent up to the sky a dark column of smoke, and long have remained in fierce action. Two years and three-quarters afterwards, France, from its centre to the Euglish Channel, would have been again desolated by an earthquake, and an island permanently upraised in the Meditterranean.

The space from under which volcanic matter on the on the 20th was actually erupted, is 720 miles in one line, and 400 miles in another line at right angles to the first; hence, in all probability a subterranean lake of lava is here stretched out, of nearly double the area of the black sea. From the intimate and complicated manner in which the elevatory and eruptive forces were shown to be connected during this train of phenomena, we may confidently come to the conclusion that the forces which slowly add by little starts uplift continents, and those which at successive periods pour forth volcanic matter from open orifices, are identical. From many reasons, I believe that the frequent quakings of the earth on this line coast are caused by the rendings of the strata necessarily consequent on the tensions of the land when upraised, and their injections by fluidified rock. This rending and injection would, if repeated often enough (and we know that earthquakes repeatedly affect the same areas in the same manner), from a chain of hills; and the linear island of St. Mary which was upraised thrice the height of the neighboring country, seems to be undergoing this process. I believe that the solid axis of a mountain differs in its manner of formation from a volcanic hill only in the molten stone having been repeatedly injected instead of having been repeatedly ejected. Moreover I believe that it is impossible to explain the structure of great mountain chains, such as that of the Cordillera, where the strata capping the injected axis of Plutonic rock, have been thrown on their edges along several parallel and neighboring lines of elevation except on this view of the rocks of the axis having been repeatedly injected, after intervals sufficiently long to allow the upper parts or wedges to cool and become solid; for if the strata had been thrown into their present highly inclined, vertical, and even inverted positions by a single blow, the very bowels of the earth would have gushed out, and instead of beholding abrupt mountain axis of rock solidified under great pressure, deluges of lava would have flowed out at innumerable points in every line of ele

vation.

EARTHQUAKES.

These convulsions have been very numerous during the last few months. The Brooklyn Evening Star, which has published my meteorlogical observations for a considerable length of time, furnishes the most conclusive evidence that earthquake disturbances, however distant, are indicated on Brooklyn Heights by observations made and published almost simultaneously with the happening of the distant disturbance. E. MERIAM.

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