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NOTES.-Third Mo. 9. A shower of hail p. m. 11. Hoar frost. 15. Frosty morning. 16. Wind very strong from NE all day. 17. Cold wind. 20. Snow in the morning, followed by rain, 22. Very wet night; high wind. 25. Snow: the barometer rising rapidly. 26. Very fine a. m.: barometer still rising. 27. Cloudy a. m.: a considerable depression of the barometer, with appearances indicating thunder. Late at night a shower of hail, with lightning. 28. Stormy, with showers. 29. Windy a. n.: at 2h. 30m. p. m., the temperature without being 54°, I found the vapour point in a room aş high as 51°. In an hour after this it began to rain steadily, and there

fell near half an inch in depth. 30. Much wind, at intervals changing to E. 31. Stormy from E and SE: cloudy: about 9 p. m. an extensive appearance of light in the clouds to the W, with rapid coruscations passing through them, in the manner of an aurora borealis. This phenomenon was apparently not more elevated than the clouds which then overspread the sky, and was certainly not produced by the reflection of a light situate below them: it continued 20 or 30 minutes.

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On the 9th March, was seen at Carlisle, the beautiful phenomenon of two parhelia, or mock suns, in the heavens. They were first observed about ten o'clock, and appeared of variable brightness until near twelve, when they vanished.

STORMS, SNOW, &c.

In consequence of the great inclemency of the weather, the mail due on the 21st March, from the north of Scotland, had not arrived at Edinburgh, nor the Glasgow at Carlisle.

Between Appleby and Brough, the snow had so much drifted as to make the road impassable for a coach.

Between Sheffield and Manchester, and Bradford and Halifax, the snow had drifted from two to three yards deep.-The mails have been also greatly impeded in South Wales; the snow and the floods having made the roads impassable.

Plymouth, March 21.-It blew a most tremendous gale from SW the whole of last night and this morning.

Hull.-On Friday, March 20, we experienced a most tremendous gale throughout the day and night; accompanied with heavy showers of snow and sleet. The accounts from the coast of the effects of the gale are highly disastrous. During the storm, the wind to the southward of the Humber, was from the SW, whilst to the northward it was strong from the NE and by E.

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COLD IN ITALY, &c.

The cold has been more severe in Italy this winter than for many preceding ones. At Venice, Turin, Naples, &c. the thermometer placed in the sun, was in January 30 below freezing point. In the southern parts of Germany the winter has been extremely severe, while in the north it has been very moderate.-(PUB. LEDGER).

EARTHQUAKE IN SOUTH AMERICA.

A supplement to the St. Thomas's Gazette, of the 9th of April, contains the following particulars of this dreadful catastrophe.

The 26th of March has been a day of woe and horror to the province of Venezuela. At 4 p. m. the city of Caraccas stood in all its splendour-a few minutes later 4,500 houses, 19 churches and convents, together with all other public buildings, monuments, &c. were crushed by a sudden shock of an earthquake. That day happening to be Holy or Maundy Thursday, and at that precise hour every place of worship being crowded, to commemorate the commencement of our Saviour's Passion, by public processions, which were to proceed through the streets a few minutes afterwards, augmented the number of sufferers to an incredible amount; as every church was levelled with the ground before any person could be aware of danger. The number taken out of one church amounting (two days after the disaster) to upwards of 300 corpses, besides those (it may be presumed) that could not yet have been dug out of such heaps of ruins, gives an idea of the extent of the calamity. The number of dead are differently stated, from 4 to 6, as far as 8,000. Horrible as this catastrophe appears, it would be matter of some consolation to know that the vicinity of that city offered some support or shelter to the surviving mourners, but the next town and sea port thereto, viz. La Guira, has in proportion suffered still more; and that appears to have been the case along its immediate coast; huge masses of the mountains have been detached from the summits and hurled down into the vallies. Deep clefts and separations of the immense beds of rocks still threaten future disasters to the hapless survivors, who are now occupied to bury and burn the dead, and to relieve the numerous maimed, perishing for want of medical aid, shelter, and other comforts.

It appears, by authentic accounts, that several other cities and towns had suffered by the earthquake which destroyed Caraccas and La Guira :-Cumana, New Barcelona, and Valencia, are nearly destroyed; Barquisimeto, Santa Rosa, and Caudare, totally destroyed; Arilaqua, sunk; and the inland town of St. Philip, with a population of 1,200 souls, entirely swallowed up.(PAPERS.)

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The writer of a letter inserted in the public papers, (dated from Jocame, two leagues from Caraccas, March 31,) gives the following account of the state of the atmosphere at the time. My first idea (on feeling the shock, which is stated to have lasted about 15 seconds) was that the Silla, a mountain near Caraccas, had broken out into a volcano: but its peak, like all the surrounding hills, was unusually clear: nor had there been any sultry weather

or violent winds-on the contrary, the weather has long been and still continues to be, warm without being sultry; though without rain for a considerable time, except now and then a few drops-and with very heavy night dews."

I may remark on the preceding statement, that probably it would have been happy for the city of Caraccas, had a volcano opened in its neighbourhood at this time. The celebrated Humboldt, whose opportunities of observing these phenomena have been most extensive, is clearly of opinion, that one and the same cause, deeply seated in the globe, produces both earthquakes and volcanic eruptions: he seems moreover to regard volcanoes as the spiracula through which the elastic vapours, occasionally disengaged in the bowels of the earth, find at vent into the atmosphere, without displacing the superincumbent strata. He considers the eruption in the island of St. Vincent, (for which see the Notes under next Table) as affording one example of this connection; as it began only 34 days after the present earthquake, and was long preceded by shocks, which were felt at the same time on the South American continent.

"We learned, says Humboldt, at Pasto, (120 miles N of Quito,) that a column of thick black smoke, which for several months in 1797, had been issuing from the volcano near that city, disappeared at the very hour when the cities of Riobamba, Hambato, and Tacunga were overthrown by an enormous shock, 60 leagues to the south of the vol cano."-Voyage au Nouveau Continent: Relation Historique, livre 2, chap. iv. which see throughout on this subject.

Supposing the prime agent in these phenomena to be water, pene trating to unusual depths through the inclined strata of mountainous countries, and thus meeting with masses of the highly oxidable bases of the earths, (for instance) which have not before undergone its action, there will then appear to be a close connexion between the recurrence of these effects and the variations of the atmosphere. For the most probable cause of such penetration, (though not the only assignable one) is excessive and continued rain; and this, not necessarily on the district which is the immediate seat of the earthquake, or eruption; but rather on some neighbouring mountainous tract, which by its position may be capable of collecting, and transmitting through subterraneous communications the requisite excess of water. Now the want of rain "for a considerable time" at Caraccas not only consists with, but even renders probable, an excess of it for the same period, in the more inland and elevated country.

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NOTES.-Fourth Mo. 4. Cloudy a. m.: clear evening. 5. Much dew: barometer unsteady: heavy clouds through the day: a shower about sunset, 6. Much dew: grey sky, and the air nearly calm. 7. Lightly cloudy: little wind. 8. Cloudy a. m.: a shower p.m. 9. Brisk wind: cloudy. 10. Hoar frost. 11. Cloudy. 16. Slight showers. The Cumulostratus cloud has prevailed every day for a week past. 17. A little hail. 20. A few large drops. 23, 24. Occasional slight showers of hail, &c. showers of rain, yet not warm. swallows appear. 28, 29. Cloudy: windy.

25. A rainy night. 26. Gentle 27. Misty morning: much dew:

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