356 Observations on Ignes Fatui. 



marshy grounds, which had every appearance of being an in- 

 sect. The wind was very high ; consequently, had it been a 

 vapour, it must have been carried forward in a direct line ; but 

 this was not the case. It had the same motions as a tipula, 

 flying upwards and downwards, backwards and forwards ; 

 sometimes appearing as settled, and sometimes as hovering in 

 the air." 



In the summer of 1826, I went into the fens of Lincoln- 

 shire, hoping to see an Ignis Fatuus ; but in this I was disap- 

 pointed. From Joseph Simpson, an intelligent fisherman at 

 Frieston Shore, near Boston, I obtained the following inform- 

 ation : — That, before the fens were drained, his father had 

 seen a dozen Ignes Fatui, apparently playing with each other 

 like insects, the highest not more than eight or ten feet above 

 the ground. He told me that, since the draining of the fens, 

 they were not so common ; yet he and several others had 

 seen one settle on a hedge, and on a post, and fly off again ; 

 and that it appeared to him to have a voluntary motion, for 

 he noticed one flying towards a hedge, then rise and pass 

 over it. 



My friend Mr. Cole, surgeon, of Charlotte Street, Bedford 

 Square, has favoured me with the following particulars on 

 this interesting but obscure subject: — 



" In October, 1823, I went to Worcester, and was met by 

 a young man, in the service of my father, who came there with 

 a gig to drive me to Leigh, near Malvern. Having heard 

 that he had seen a Will-with-the-wisp, I took the opportunity 

 the drive afforded, to enquire about what he had seen, when 

 he stated as follows : — 



" ■ I was coming home with the boy from looking after the 

 sheep, at the further side of the farm. Our path lay near a 

 hedge; and on a sudden there appeared at a distance a ball of fire 

 about as big as my head. We stopped; and it came directly 

 towards us. The boy asked me what it was : I told him I sup- 

 posed it must be what they called a Jack-o'-lantern. It had 

 a dancing kind of motion, and advanced under the hedge 

 side, till it came quite near to us; it then divided into a dozen 

 or twenty parts, forming so many balls of fire, about the size 

 of my fist, which flew apart from each other, and played 

 about for a short time. They then joined together again into 

 one large ball, as at first, and turned over the hedge into the 

 next field. It passed between two oak trees that stood at 

 some distance from the hedge, and then went straight across 

 the fields, rising over the hedges, until it disappeared in the 

 distance.' In reply to my questions, he stated that it was in 

 the spring of the year, and that the night was about as dark 

 as it was at the time he was speaking, a clear moonless night 



