Scientific Intelligence. — Meteorology. 185 



head ; and the chain was made to descend along the back-stay, 

 and below was kept at a distance of ten feet from the starboard 

 bulwarks, by a light wooden outrigger, or spar. Its whole 

 length was 145 feet, of which about nine feet of its lower part 

 descended into the sea. The wisdom of adopting this precau- 

 tion was soon apparent, for, in the course of the same morning, 

 the ship was struck by a second explosion, which is stated by 

 the unanimous testimony of all on board to have far exceeded 

 in violence the first. It melted a great part of the conductor, 

 producing a vivid combustion of many of the links, which 

 burned like so many tapers ; and, descending into the sea, dart- 

 ed off to a considerable distance along the surface of the waves. 

 The resistance to its passage was so great, as to cause the ship 

 to recoil with a sudden and violent shock, so as to throw down 

 several of the crew. The melted iron of the conductor fell in 

 large drops on the deck, which, although already strewed with 

 hailstones that had previously fallen, intermixed with rain, was 

 set fire to in many places by the ignited metal. No damage, 

 however, was done to the masts or rigging, nor the least injury 

 to any of the crew, with the exception of a carpenter, who being 

 at work with an iron auger in his hand, received a smart shock 

 through the wrists, which occasioned a livid tumour which was 

 still visible six weeks after the accident. Soon after the arrival 

 of the vessel in Liverpool, she was docked, in order to ascertain 

 what damage she had sustained. Some of her planks were found 

 to have started, but her timbers were uninjured. Every instru- 

 ment made of steel, such as the carpenter's tools, and the knives 

 and forks, and also those made of soft iron, even to the very 

 nails in every part of the ship, has been rendered permanently 

 magnetic. All the watches and chronometers were either stop- 

 ped or rendered useless, by the magnetism imparted to the ba- 

 lance-wheels and other parts of their works that were made of 

 steel. Contrary to what usually happens from shocks of arti- 

 ficial electricity, the lightning had given a strong northern po- 

 larity to the upper part of the conductor. Many parts of the 

 iron work, indeed, had acquired magnetism corresponding to 

 their position with respect to the magnetic direction ; but in 

 others, no relation of this kind could be traced. Great changes 

 were produced on the magnetism of the compass needles, in many 

 of which were found several sets of poles, and their indications 



