17S The hish Natuialhl. October, 



that the described appearance is in fact a '' Willy- the 

 Wisp." I was pleased on reading the notes oi Mr. Moffat 

 to find that they agree, not only with my opinion, l)ut with 

 an observation I have made which may be of interest. 



I remember very well that nine or W\\ vears ago, late one 

 evening in antumn, in my own neighbonrhood (Middle 

 Germany) I was walking o\\ a road which runs about 50 

 metres aloove the level of a meadow-valley traversed by a 

 small stream. It was a calm and very dark evening, and 

 no star w^as to be seen. Suddenly 1 perceived a light about 

 600 or 800 metres before me ; it was on the ground of the 

 meadow in a little boggy place not far from a small village. 

 I did not at first attend to it, because I thought that someone 

 with a lamp was coming to the other village, which I had 

 just left. After a few minutes I looked at the light 

 occasionally and wondered it did not approach me. Still I 

 did not suspect an unusual appearance, when the light 

 (which had been mo\'ing a little, as if somebody was walking 

 with a lamp) quickly rose, almost perpendicularly but a 

 little zig-zag, to a remarkable height, and then disappeared 

 suddenly. I was much astonished, because I had never 

 before seen such an appearance, and I paused, feeling sure 

 that I had seen a " Willy-the-Wisp " and hoping to see it 

 once more. In fact after a short time I did perceive, nearly 

 in the same locality from which the first light arose, a 

 luminous fog shining faintly, A little later there was a 

 tremulous movement in the fog. All at once this faintly 

 shining fog was transformed into a small huninous nucleus, 

 of the size of a lamp-light. This extraordinary light was 

 sometimes standing, sometimes moving, and at last it rose 

 and disappeared in the manner before described. I observed 

 it going out and reappearing for some time, perhaps twenty 

 minutes. 



In reference to this observation I may add that " VVilly- 

 the Wisp " is seen very seldom in my district ; but, as for 

 the appearance I have described, nobody could believe for 

 a moment that it was caused by a bird. 



Wetteburg, Saxc, Prussia. 



