Thunder-^ forms in the Polar t^egiOns. SI 



as a country in which thunder never occurs. The word ne'cer 

 here used, however, should be altered, fdr in an interval of about 

 two years we find, in the meteorological observations of M. 

 Thorstensen, there was one day, the 80th of November, ift 

 which thunder was heard/' Upon this sentiment M. Baer re- 

 marks, " That if there be those who adduce Iceland as a coun- 

 try where no thunder occurs, it is evident that they have not 

 consulted the numerous works which have been written regard- 

 ing it. Thunder-storms are in reality frequent there, though 

 not so common as in most other parts of Europe. It is not to 

 be forgotten, say Olafsen and Povelsen, as a memorable fact, 

 connected with the northern part of Iceland, that thunder- 

 storms prevailed there, and terrible lightnings, during the u'hole 

 of the summer of the year 1718, and that, on the 11th of June, 

 a man was killed by a thunderbolt. The same observers, who 

 dwelt long in Iceland, assert, that lightnings are frequent in 

 the northern parts, and that thunder is heard there from time 

 to time. In the western peninsula storms are rare, and thun- 

 der is only heard at distant intervals of time. Thunder is 

 more frequent on the southern portion of the island ; there it 

 has twice destroyed the cathedral of Skalholt, and in 1634, it 

 removed the roofs from a number of houses. Anderson* tells 

 us that it thunders in those countries usually only in winter ; 

 and Olafsen and Povelsent repeat the assertion. 



" In Greenland, thunder is more uncommon, according to 

 the statements of Egede and Crantz.| The former of these 

 missionaries resided in the country for fifteen years ; and the 

 latter remarks, that you sometimes observe lightnings, but 

 thunder is but seldom heard. 



" Upon the continents in the same latitude as Iceland, 

 thunder is much more frequent than in that island. In 

 America, on the coasts of Hudson's Bay, Ellis and James 

 Hudson have witnessed thunder-storms. § On the thunder- 



* Anderson ; Nachrichten von Island, Groenland und der Strasse Davis, 

 1747. s. 123. 



t Voyage en Islande fait par ordre, &c. S. M. D. 1. 1. p. 13. 



X Egede, Beschrcibung und Naturgeschichte von Gronland, s. 79. Crantz 

 Historie von Groenland, b. i. s. 62. 



I Scowsby's Account of th© Arctic Regidiis, vol. i. p. 415. 



