The house belonged to Mr. Hood,
the consul-general at Monte Video. Some of the effects were
curious: the paper, for nearly a foot on each side of the line
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.
[1] Hearne's Journey, p. 383.
[2] Maclaren, art. "America," Encyclop. Brittann.
[3] Azara says, "Je crois que la quantite annuelle des pluies
est, dans toutes ces contrees, plus considerable qu'en Espagne."
- Vol. i. p. 36.
[4] In South America I collected altogether twenty-seven
species of mice, and thirteen more are known from the works
of Azara and other authors. Those collected by myself have
been named and described by Mr. Waterhouse at the meetings
of the Zoological Society.
