Danger from Lightupig, 117 



invoke their aid, since they have been so very partially col- 

 lected. To this must be added that no accurate account has 

 been preserved of the drfferences which exist as to the frequency 

 and the intensity of thunder-storms, or to their occurrence in 

 different countries, or even in different circumscri!)ed spaces. 



No one in the Republic of New Grenada willino^ly inhabits 

 El Sitio ds Tumha barrefo, near the golden mine of Vega de 

 Sztpia, on account of the frccjucncy of thunderbolts. The 

 people have preserved the recollection of a f]jreat number of 

 miners who had been killed by lightning. "While M. Bous- 

 singault traversed El SHio during the prevalence of a storm, 

 a flash of lightning struck to the ground a negro who was act- 

 ing as his guide. The Loma de Pitago, in the environs of 

 Popayan, possesses the same melancholy celebrity. A young 

 Swedish botanist, M. Plancheman^ obstinately persisting, not- 

 withstanding the advice of the inhabitants, to cross the Loma, 

 when the sky was covered with stormy looking clouds, there met 

 his death. Finally, in considering great countries only, it ap- 

 pears that in some, entire years occasionally elapse without a 

 word being said of the tragical events occasioned by lightning, 

 whilst in others, on the contrary, in certain seasons they seem 

 to happen almost daily. For example, I find that in the sum- 

 mer of 1797, from the month of June till the 18th of August, 

 Volney counted in the newspapers of the United States, eighty- 

 four serious accidents, and seventeen deaths ; whilst in France, 

 the newspapers of the year 1805, if I am rightly informed, only 

 announce one thunder-storm which was productive of the death 

 of one individual. In the year 180G, again, they recount only 

 the death of two children who were struck upon their mother's 

 knee at Auhagne, Department des Bouches du Rhone : in the year 

 1807, these same journals mention the case only of two young 

 ])easants of the Comimme de St Geiiicz who were struck with 

 lightning when engaged in harvest-work ; and in 1808 they allude 

 only to a waterman who was killed on the banks of the river at 

 Angers. Notwithstanding all this, the years are very far, even 

 in France, from resembling each other, in respect of the num- 

 ber of deaths from lightning. In one year, 1819, the reported 

 victims are the following : — On the 28th of June, three horses, 

 near to Vitry-le-Fraricais ; on the lllh of July, as already 



