344 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



lire. It was about GOO or 700 yards from where we sat, and the sound 

 of the thunder was more like that of tlie rocket than tliat Avhich usually 

 accompanies electrical discharges. In fact, the cloud probably passed 

 through the village rather than over it ; and the discharges were ne- 

 cessarily short, close, and without prolonged reverberations, such as 

 may occur when the stroke is high, partly in dry air, and several 

 miles in lencjth, the sound from which must reach the ear at ditierent 

 intervals of time, thus producing a continuous rolling noise. 



We are here reminded of another thunder-shower, of peculiar feat- 

 ures, which occurred in Brattleboro in November, 1860. It was on 

 the day of the first election of Mr. Lincoln to the presidency. A pine- 

 tree was rent into fragments by it, and a passer-by, a voter, on see- 

 ing the extraordinary havoc that had been made, the white, shining 

 splinters lying scattered over the ground, in all sizes, from the small- 

 est sliver up to strips long enough for rails, exclaimed in great excite- 

 ment: "The thing is all up now; for the old 'Rail-Splitter' is around 

 at his work ! " Even thunder-showers are wrested by some men into 

 a political significance ! 



The circumstances of the case, how^ever, would appear to have 

 been these : A dense cloud, borne upon a low southwest surface-cur- 

 rent of wind, was passing across the deep valley of the West River, 

 half a mile or so from its mouth, when it was probably struck by a 

 cool, dry mountain-breeze flowing down the valley. This breeze im- 

 parted new electricity to the cloud, Avhich, being thus overcharged, 

 gave out its surplus in a sudden shock, which took efiect upon, a 

 group of pines. Every drop of water of which the cloud was com- 

 posed we may regard as a small Leyden jar, as it were, the united 

 force of which proved sufficient to rend in pieces one of the pines in 

 an instant of time. The tree was some seventy feet in height, two 

 feet in diameter, and stood, not on the heights immediately under the 

 cloud, but low down, within a few paces of the river. It was broken 

 square ofl" twenty or thirty feet from the top ; and this top fell straight 

 down and stood leaning against the shattered stump, showing that the 

 trunk had been rent asunder so suddenly as to occasion no obstruction 

 to its fall ! There were but two discharges of electricity from this 

 cloud ; and soon afterward the weather cleared up from the north- 

 west. 



-*>- 



THE AUSTRALIAN FEYER-TREE.' 



DURING the present century, a great number of exotic plants and 

 trees have been brought to Europe, or transplanted from their 

 original habitat to other climes. In view of its usefulness, perhaps 

 the blue-gum tree of Australia and Tasmania, belonging to the genus 



' Translated from Das Ausland. 



