The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-01 00:00:00

bited by a nomade tribe of thirty families, all of
whom perished. The meadow is now covered with
a deep stratum of clay. On a piece of ground ex-
tending from the monastery to the village of A corhi,
where formerly were to be seen cultivated fields and
gardens, we at present find a labyrinth of hillocks
of a conical form, composed of fragments of rock,
and covering fragments of glaciers, which, in con-
sequence of being thus protected against the influ-
ence of the atmosphere, are not yet melted. These
hillocks are furrowed by numerous fissures, and
have cavities full of water containing vitriol; they
will probably disappear when the ice which they
cover shall be dissolved.
The stratum of clay where it has buried the
village is comparatively inconsiderable. In the
hope of finding articles of value, the Curds soon
began to explore the ruins. The excavations they
have made, to the depth of a sagene, expose to view
the rafters of the cottages still resting on the ruins
of these habitations. Here and there some frag-
ments of the inferior part of the walls remain up-
right. The interior is everywhere filled with lumps
of ice and blocks of rock—a proof that the village
was not destroyed by a torrent of debris rolling and
sliding down the side of the mountain like an ava-
lanche, but was crushed by a mass of matter, which
having been hurled through space descended per•
pendicularly on the spot.
After the great concussion, the effects of which
were so dreadful, distinctly felt shocks occurred at
intervals until the 28th of July ; they afterwards
diminished in force, but they did not entirely cease
in the district of Sharur until the Ist of Sep-
tember, and, though very feeble towards the close
of that period, they were still accompanied by a
slight subterraneous noise.
The shocks which occurred in the canton of
Nakhichevan, between the 21st and the 28th of
June, overthrew the buildings which the first earth-
quake had shaken. The heaviest shocks which
were afterwards observed occurred on the 14th of
July. at 3 A M.. in the quarantin of Igdir, and on
the 25th of July, at 3 and 10 A.M., arid at 5 p.m.,
in the caLt)n of Surmalinsk.

MR. SNOW HARRIS'S CONDUC

TORS.

To such of our readers a 3 may be unacquainted
with Mr. Harris's plan, it may be Well to exp'ain that
it consists of tneta!lic plates inserted nearly half-an-inch
in depth into the after part of the coasts, from the
truck to the kelson ; the communication being preserved
by overlapping parts, connected though not combined.
These are intended to convey the electric fluid through
the centre of the ship, passing it into the water, by
three or four bolts leading through the keel.
Now, this arrangement may be all very good, and
probably very safe, but our objections to it are mani-
fold. First, we dislike the principle of inviting the
electric fluid into the bcdy of the ship, when it
is possible to convey it over the side. Next, as
lightning does not suit itself to the size of the
vessel, but strikes the small and the great indif-
ferently with the same force, and the plates are no
larger than what are considered capable of conducting
the stream in all cases ; it is evident that the smallest
mast must be fitted in the same manner as the largest ;
and as the topgallant-masts of small vessels are not
more than five cr six inches in diameter, it appears to us
that they would be greatly injured, and their elasticity
totally destroyed, by the insertion of such plates as those
proposed, and the nails to secure them.

Again, there is the difficulty of effecting any repairs,
should a ship be distnasted abroad ; but more than all,
the comparative cost between this plan and what we
consider as good in all respects, and far better in many
—the wire conductor, which passes the fluid over the
side—and which has lately been fitted to several ships.
There arc various opinions respecting the utility of
conductors, some contending that they are injurious,
by attracting the fluid, and that more buildings have
been destroyed in consequence of their presence than if
they were wanting. Others argue, that to be of the
greatest use they should be so arranged as to convey
the fluid clear of the object ; these last are the common-
sense folks ; while the philosophers advocate the plan of
Mr. Harris, and even propose to pass the plates
through the magazine of gunpowder. When Lord
Sandwich, of facetious memory, was once asked to de-
fine the difference between orthodoxy and heterodoxy,
he replied, that the first was his dozy, and the last
any other mait's Boxy. Now, although upon this
matter the report is in favour of the heterodoxites, it is
remarkable that the principle so strongly recommended
by the Committee has not been put in practice by ship-
owners, while the simple process of the copper-wire
chains being, we suppose, more evident to the under-
standing, or snore orthodoxical, is fast getting into
use, not only in this country but Americo, for we under-
stand that within the last month nearly twenty vessels
at Liverpool have been supplied with the patent rope
for this purpose, and several orders taken for the
United St rtes navy. Thus it is that useful inventions
•make their way, when it requires the aid of Parliamt n-
tary influence—and the Western Members did exert
Ithemselves " or:e and ali"—to cram down a question-
-1 aoe project. We reeol!eet th-it some years back, when
in command of the Actaeon, Captain the Honourable
Frederick Grey had his ship fitted with Harris's con-
ductors ; and this officer, of a highly scientific and in-
tchigent mind, gave evidence before the Committee in
favour of them, yet he has gone to sea in the Endy-
mion without applying for them, although he was struck
by lightning in the Jupiter in 1835, and must there-
fore have had some reason to alter his opinion. The
strange logic was broached in the debate, that because
the Committee reported favourably of Mr. Harris's
plan it out„ht to have been adopted upon every ship
fitted, in preference to any other, although it is noto-
rious that another, in the opinion of many good judges
quite as efficacious, exists, and which can be accom-
plished at about one-tenth the expense.
From first to last about sixteen vessels have been
fitted with Harris's conductors, and the cost of fitting
all in commission would be little less than 30,0001. The
Caledonia alone cost upwards of 4001., while the Bri-
tannia and Howe cost only about 701. each, with the
rival conductors.
Another somewhat curious insinuation was thrown
out by a Noble Lord and Gallant Captain, respecting
the probability of political bias displayed in this matter.
Dr. Johnson defined a nice man to be a man of tasty
ideas, meaning thereby that his mind must be always
dwelling upon nasty matters ere he wool I think of smell-
ing for them. It is the bane of the United Service, that its
members who have seats in Parliament allow their political
bias to outweigh every other thought,and introduce party
or factous feelings into every thing they undertake, and
for this reason the honesty of their advocacy being always
suspected becomes of little value to their brother
echoers. What has the building of ships, or the best
mode of protecting them from lightning', to do with
Whig, Tory, or Radical ? yet we find that these con-
flie ing principles are continually obtruded into debates.
Would that we could find a naval officer in Parliament
Kith views directed solely to the benefit of his prufes-
siou, taking his stand in a position to entitle his ex-
pressed opinions to the support and appliuse of the
United Set vice, an interest not to be vltogethcr despised,
except in those constituencies where corruption and
bribery secure the return of the Members.—Naval and
Military Gazette.