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MR MILNE ON A REMARKABLE OSCILLATION OF THE SEA. 



STORM OF STH 

 JULY 1843. 



SEVERITY OF 

 STORM. 



This inference is greatly strengthened by the circumstance that, during the 

 first week of July 1843, a succession of thunder-storms passed over different parts 

 of the British Islands ; and that, on the 5th July, in particular, one occurred, 

 which, for severity and extent, has been rarely equalled. 



Independently of the bearing which it has on the oscillation of the sea at 

 that period, it is interesting to trace the progress of this last mentioned storm, 

 and to shew the nature of it. 



The severity of the storm may be judged of from the damage which it did 

 at various places. 



Near Gloucester, the lightning killed a man, and struck two other persons to 

 the ground. The hailstones which fell, measured 3J inches in circumference. 



At Huddersfield, a man was killed by the lightning. 



At Milling, in Lancashire, a boy was killed by the lightning, and two others 

 were for several hours rendered insensible. 



At Worcester, it killed two horses and six sheep. It also exploded in a 

 house, filling the room with heat and sulphureous vapour. 



At Leicester, it set fire to a hay-rick, killed three cows, and knocked down 

 three men and a horse. 



At Stafford, the lightning struck two houses. 



At Coclcermouth, the lightning struck several persons, and set fire to the cur- 

 tains of a bed. 



At Whitehaven, the electric fluid was seen to issue from the earth, and to 

 communicate with a nimbus above. 



Near Longtown, upwards of 100 trees were torn up by the roots in less than 

 two minutes. A man-servant was lifted from his feet, by the force of the wind. 



Near Peebles, the lightning killed thirty-four sheep, breaking and scattering 

 the stones of the fold in which they had taken shelter. 



In Edinburgh, two curious circumstances were mentioned in the newspapers. 

 One was, that whilst a servant girl was polishing a steel fork in a house in the 

 Lothian Road, she received a severe shock of electricity, which caused her life to 

 be despaired of. Dr PEDDIE, of Rutland Street, was called in, and succeeded in 

 resuscitating the patient. At the same moment, the house immediately opposite, 

 next to LAING'S Bazaar, was damaged, the electric fluid having struck the 

 chimneys, and partly rent the gable. 



The other circumstance was, that in Great Stuart Street, immediately before 

 the violent discharge, about 7 h 20' P.M., a maid-servant was ironing some articles 

 of dress, when she perceived a circle of fire vibrating round the irons she held in 

 her hand. The phenomenon was repeated three times with extraordinary rapi- 

 dity, and shed such a glare of light on the article she was ironing, that she 

 thought it was on fire. The violent claps of thunder accompanying the light- 

 ning, together with the vividness of the fire-circle streaming from the irons, 



