In the beginning of this year, A.D. 1834, the Egyptian dominions of the Pasha suffered greatly from the ravages of pestilence or plague. It first appeared in Alexandria, where it was reported to have been brought from Malta: sanitary precautions were adopted, but the prejudices of the people rendered them unavailing, and they were consequently abandoned as being useless. By the end of February, the deaths in Alexandria amounted to 200 daily. The disease then extended to Grand Cairo, and soon after stretched up the valley of the Nile, sweeping off the greater part of the population. In the month of March, the deaths were computed to be from 300 to 400 daily at Cairo; in May they had increased to nearly 2000. The town of Fua, situated on the banks of the Nile, containing a population of 2500 inhabitants, was stated to have lost 1800 in a very short period. The distemper disappeared as the year advanced, but its ravages, together with the long-continued military exertions of the Pasha, left Egypt almost depopulated. In the early part of the year 1835, there happened an eruption of Vesuvius, which has been thus described by an eye-witness:--A new crater having burst out, a stream of red-hot lava issued therefrom, in the direction of Castelmare, spreading itself over several miles in a few hours’ time, its course being marked by flames rising in volumes from the ground over which it flowed. The intense heat occasioned by this body of fire was felt at Sorrento. The same year, an earthquake was experienced in South America on the 20th of February; it caused the destruction of the cities of Talar and Carico, with the towns of Conquenes, Linares, and Chillian: not a house was left standing in a place called Conception, and the workmen who were engaged repairing the cathedral of that city were buried in the ruins. In the month of June, hail and thunderstorms did much damage in various parts of England; on the 9th, 10th, and 11th, different parts of the country suffered greatly; the destruction of glass in the neighbourhood of Cambridge, on the 9th, was estimated at £2000. In Newmarket a similar loss of property occurred. In Durham the lightning struck the western tower of the cathedral, and hurled down an immense mass of stone, which, alighting upon the pavement beneath, was dashed into innumerable fragments, at the moment when a party of students belonging to the university, who had been inspecting a monument recently erected, alarmed by the crash, rushed from the cathedral; two of the party were killed instantly by the falling ruin, and ten others were severely wounded. About this period, in the month of January, the little village of Raffhaten, on the frontiers of Wallachia, was the locality in which there occurred the singular phenomenon of a shower of meteorolites: about 6 A.M., on the 29th of January, the inhabitants were aroused from sleep by a noise as of a heavy shower of hail, which was