The Voyage of the Beagle - The Original Classic Edition. Darwin Charles
lying near, showed that they had formerly been buried to a greater depth. Four sets entered the sand perpendicularly: by working with my hands I traced one of them two feet deep; and some fragments which evidently had belonged to the same tube, when added to the other part, measured five feet three inches. The diameter of the whole tube was nearly equal, and therefore we must suppose that originally it extended to a much greater depth. These dimensions
are however small, compared to those of the tubes from Drigg, one of which was traced to a depth of not less than thirty feet.
The internal surface is completely vitrified, glossy, and smooth. A small fragment examined under the microscope appeared, from the number of minute entangled air or perhaps steam bubbles, like an assay fused before the blowpipe. The sand is entirely, or in
greater part, siliceous; but some points are of a black colour, and from their glossy surface possess a metallic lustre. The thickness of the wall of the tube varies from a thirtieth to a twentieth of
an inch, and occasionally even equals a tenth. On the outside the grains of sand are rounded, and have a slightly glazed appearance: I could not distinguish any signs of crystallisation. In a similar
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manner to that described in the "Geological Transactions," the
tubes are generally compressed, and have deep longitudinal furrows, so as closely to resemble a shrivelled vegetable stalk, or the bark
of the elm or cork tree. Their circumference is about two inches, but in some fragments, which are cylindrical and without any furrows, it is as much as four inches. The compression from the surrounding loose sand, acting while the tube was still softened from the effects of the intense heat, has evidently caused the creases or furrows. Judging from the uncompressed fragments, the
measure or bore of the lightning (if such a term may be used) must have been about one inch and a quarter. At Paris, M. Hachette and M. Beudant succeeded in making tubes, in most respects similar to these fulgurites, by passing very strong shocks of galvanism
through finely-powdered glass: when salt was added, so as to
increase its fusibility, the tubes were larger in every dimension.
(3/11. "Annales de Chimie et de Physique" tome 37 page 319.) They failed both with powdered feldspar and quartz. One tube, formed with pounded glass, was very nearly an inch long, namely .982, and had an internal diameter of .019 of an inch. When we hear that the strongest battery in Paris was used, and that its power on a
substance of such easy fusibility as glass was to form tubes so diminutive, we must feel greatly astonished at the force of a shock of lightning, which, striking the sand in several places, has
formed cylinders, in one instance of at least thirty feet long, and having an internal bore, where not compressed, of full an inch and
a half; and this in a material so extraordinarily refractory as
quartz!
The tubes, as I have already remarked, enter the sand nearly in a
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vertical direction. One, however, which was less regular than the others, deviated from a right line, at the most considerable bend, to the amount of thirty-three degrees. From this same tube, two
small branches, about a foot apart, were sent off; one pointed
downwards, and the other upwards. This latter case is remarkable,
as the electric fluid must have turned back at the acute angle of
26 degrees, to the line of its main course. Besides the four tubes which I found vertical, and traced beneath the surface, there were several other groups of fragments, the original sites of which without doubt were near. All occurred in a level area of shifting sand, sixty yards by twenty, situated among some high
sand-hillocks, and at the distance of about half a mile from a chain of hills four or five hundred feet in height. The most remarkable circumstance, as it appears to me, in this case as well as in that of Drigg, and in one described by M. Ribbentrop in
Germany, is the number of tubes found within such limited spaces. At Drigg, within an area of fifteen yards, three were observed, and the same number occurred in Germany. In the case which I have described, certainly more than four existed within the space of the sixty by twenty yards. As it does not appear probable that the
tubes are produced by successive distinct shocks, we must believe that the lightning, shortly before entering the ground, divides itself into separate branches.
The neighbourhood of the Rio Plata seems peculiarly subject to electric phenomena. In the year 1793, one of the most destructive thunderstorms perhaps on record happened at Buenos Ayres: thirty-seven places within the city were struck by lightning, and
nineteen people killed. (3/12. Azara's "Voyage" volume 1 page 36.)
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From facts stated in several books of travels, I am inclined to
suspect that thunderstorms are very common near the mouths of great
rivers. Is it not possible that the mixture of large bodies of
fresh and salt water may disturb the electrical equilibrium? Even during our occasional visits to this part of South America, we
heard of a ship, two churches, and a house having been struck. Both the church and the house I saw shortly afterwards: 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 volatilised, 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.
(PLATE 17. HALT AT A PULPERIA ON THE PAMPAS.)
CHAPTER IV.
(PLATE 18. EL CARMEN, OR PATAGONES, RIO NEGRO.)
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Rio Negro.
Estancias attacked by the Indians. Salt Lakes.
Flamingoes.
R. Negro to R. Colorado. Sacred Tree.
Patagonian Hare. Indian Families. General Rosas.
Proceed to Bahia Blanca. Sand Dunes.
Negro Lieutenant. Bahia Blanca.
Saline Incrustations. Punta Alta.
Zorillo.
RIO NEGRO TO BAHIA BLANCA.
JULY 24, 1833.
The "Beagle" sailed from Maldonado, and on August the 3rd she arrived off the mouth of the Rio Negro. This is the principal river on the whole line of coast between the Strait of Magellan and the Plata. It enters the sea about three hundred miles south of the estuary of the Plata. About fifty years ago, under the old Spanish government, a small colony was established here; and it is still
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the most southern position (latitude 41 degrees) on this eastern coast of America inhabited by civilised man.
The country near the mouth of the river is wretched in the extreme: on the south side a long line of perpendicular cliffs commences, which exposes a section of the geological nature of the country.
The strata are of sandstone, and one layer was remarkable from
being composed of a firmly-cemented conglomerate of pumice pebbles, which must have travelled more than four hundred miles, from the Andes. The surface is everywhere covered up by a thick bed of