SOME PECULIARITIES OF A THUNDERSTORM. 29 



of lightning, to form an idea why the trunk should be decor- 

 ticated and split to shivers, whilst no mark of violence appears 

 on the leaves and branches ; for the suddenly disturbed electric 

 element in the vicinity of the tree would find an easy ingress 

 through the medium of the foliage, which, in consequence of 

 each leaf and point introducing but a small portion of the 

 whole that entered the tree, would not suffer by the trans- 

 mission from the air ; but as the whole of these portions would 

 arrive at the trunk at the same moment, they would form a 

 formidable mass of the electric element, sufficient to convert 

 the sap into steam, with an expanding power that would 

 accomplish the tree's destruction in a moment. 



But to return to the Prestwich observations. After leaving 

 the ground where the kite experiments were made, the light- 

 ning appeared so unusually fine that I was induced to observe 

 it for a long time ; and as the flashes, or rather streams, of 

 electric fluid were each of longer duration than any I had 

 previously seen, I stept into the house for a pendulum to 

 ascertain the time which each discharge occupied, and found 

 that, in some cases, the electric fluid was visible during a 

 second and a half. Most of the discharges seemed to be 

 at great altitudes amongst the clouds, and had a fiery red 

 appearance ; and as several appeared to shoot upwards, they, 

 according to the rules of perspective, proceeded towards the 

 place where I was standing. Many discharges, however, 

 took a horizontal direction at right angles to the former, and 

 others were seen to shoot obliquely in various directions. The 

 streams of electric fluid were of unusually large diameter, and 

 seemed like streams of liquid fire ; and in some instances they 

 looked like sky-rockets, with a burst of multitudes of stars. 

 Upon the whole, this was the most singular display of light- 

 ning I ever beheld. 



