342 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



stationary, as they often are at sea, for otherwise summer rains 'vrould 

 not be evenly distributed over the face of the country ; and the hind 

 in some places would be subject to exceeding moisture, while in other 

 places it would suffer from the drought. 



A few days after the above was written, a violent thunder-gust 

 closed a warm afternoon. It was on the 1st of August, 1873. The 

 day had been hot and peculiarly oppressive, as is usually the case be- 

 fore a violent storm. Between four and six o'clock p. m., a thunder- 

 shower came down the valley of West River, and corresponded in its 

 general features with the desci-iption given above ; but it exhibited in 

 addition other features which were entirely peculiar. The lightning 

 struck in five notably different jjlaces in the village of Brattleboro, 

 which partly borders the valley of West River near where it disem- 

 bogues into the Connecticut River, and these places, instead of being 

 elevated points, were, in all cases except one, among some of the 

 lower ones. And they were nearly all in the same straight line, about 

 a half or three-fourths of a mile in length, and at a short distance from 

 the Connecticut. 



The strokes that fell upon these points followed each other in 

 pretty rapid succession, and were accompanied by thunder that had 

 a sound as if partly suppressed. It was neither loud nor jarring, as 

 thunder sometimes is. The rain fell in floods, and was very copious. 

 Its abundance, rendering the air seemingly nearly half water, doubt- 

 less occasioned the subdued sound of the thunder, and perhaps greatly 

 reduced the force of the shocks ; for in no case was any considerable 

 damage done. An upper corner of a two-story house was shattered, 

 two other buildings were slightly injured, and several trees were 

 marked by narrow channels down their trunks or branches. Together 

 with the first house struck, one of two fir-trees standing near was 

 grooved at the same time, and some of the splinters were found in the 

 chamber nearest the shattered corner, although the window-blinds 

 were closed and fastened. These splinters must have been driven up 

 between the slats of the blinds, which would seem to show that the 

 stroke was upward instead of downward. A window-curtain near the 

 corner was torn to shreds. In the lower room nearest the corner 

 there were no effects of the shock observed except upon a gilt cornice 

 which was marked at intervals by black perpendicular bars, the gild- 

 ing there having been burned or melted. The intervals between these 

 bars were in some cases very narrow, and at others very wide. Two 

 persons sitting in this room perceived no effect from the shock. 



At one moment during the storm the wind came from the north 

 or northeast. This wind was probably highly charged with electricity, 

 which, being added to the electricity of the northwest current, pro- 

 duced such an excess of the fluid as to result in the rapid and numer- 

 ous discharges which took place. The most of these discharges appar- 

 ently occurred along the line where the two currents of air met. The 



