Mists arise and disappear several times in the course of an hour in such
elevations as these, and with a calm state of the atmosphere. These rapid
alternations characterize the Paramos and the elevated plains of the chain
of the Andes.
'The electricity of the atmosphere', whether considered in the lower or in
the upper strata of the clouds, in its silent problematical diurnal course,
or in the explosion of the lightning and thunder of the tempest, appears to
stand in a manifold relation to all phenomena of the distribution of heat,
of the pressure of the atmosphere and its disturbances, of hydrometeoric
exhibitions, and probably, also, of the magnetism of the external crust of
the earth. It exercises a powerful influence on the whole animal and
vegetable world; not merely by meteorological processes, as precipitations
of aqueous vapor, and of the acids and ammoniacal compounds to which it
gives rise, but also directly as an electric force acting on the nerves, and
promoting the circulation of the organic juices. This is not a place in
which to renew the discussion that has been started regarding the actual
source of atmospheric eletricity when the sky is clear, a phenomenon that
has alternately been ascribed to the evaporation of impure fluids
impregnated with earths and salts,* to the growth of plants,** or to some
other chemical decompositions on the surface of the earth, to the unequal
distribution of heat in the strata of the air,*** and, finally, according to
Peltier's intelligent researches,**** to the agency of a constant charge of
negative electricity in the terrestrial globe.
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