550 Possible Origin of Ignis Fatuus, 



crowded his large kitchen every evening, he might well forget 

 a matter which was no part of his business to remember. 



The above occurrences took place twenty-seven years ago ; 

 and from that time, till I saw the remarks in the Magazine of 

 Natural History, I have not heard of any one else entertaining 

 the idea that the Ignis Fatuus was emitted by an insect. As 

 to the supposition of the male glowworm carrying the female 

 is extremely improbable ; the former being totally incapable 

 of carrying the latter, as the male is a much smaller insect. 

 These last may be easily collected by placing a lighted candle 

 upon a table near an open window, in warm showery weather 

 in the latter end of summer. To the light they mistakingly 

 speed, only to meet disappointment : for it is the lamps of the 

 other sex they are in quest of; and, therefore, that line in the 

 amiable poet Thomson's Summer, viz. — 



" Among the crooked lanes, on every hedge 

 The glowworm lights his gem, : . . . . 



should be rendered her gem ; for, though the male has also 

 two luminous vesicles attached to the posterior ring or joint 

 of the abdomen, they are so very dim, that they can scarcely 

 be seen, and certainly not at all while flying on nights, how- 

 ever near to a spectator. 



I take the liberty to add a report which I have lately heard 

 respecting a very strange phenomenon witnessed by a most 

 respectable authority ; namely, Mr. White, chief officer of 

 the preventive service on the Scarborough station, and which 

 cannot well be reconciled with accounts of the Ignis Fatuus 

 as described by others. 



One clear starlight night, as that gentleman was proceeding 

 from his house to the cliff where one of his men, namedTrotter, 

 had the (< look out," he passed a plantation in his way, in 

 which he heard a loud crash among the trees, as if it had been 

 the fall of an aerolite. There was no appearance of northern 

 lights ; but he saw before him what he thought were balls of 

 fire, about the size of an orange, appearing and disappearing 

 with an undulating motion, about 5 ft. or 6 ft. from the ground ; 

 not accompanied by any noise, nor did they move over the 

 hedges ; but he observed other luminous appearances shooting 

 across the road and sky, emitting a hissing noise like a rocket, 

 but not so loud. The same appearances (particularly the 

 latter), which, like " the fiery cressets " that filled the air at 

 the birth of the redoutable Owen Glendower, had so frightened 

 the man Trotter, that he had actually hid himself for fear of 

 them. {Extracted from a letter lately received from Mr. While's 

 youngest son.) 



