310 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [Feb, 



TREES AND LIGHTNING. 



SIR, — I am very glad to see that the subject, " How Lightning 

 strikes Trees and other Objects," is attracting something like the 

 attention it deserves. In the November number of the Journal of 

 Forestry, Mr. J. C. Craig asks the question if any one ever saw a 

 tree which the lightning had struck in an upward direction ? To 

 that question I am glad to be able to give an answer. On the 13th 

 of August 1882, a heavy thunderstorm passed over this district, and 

 about a mile south of the village of Fordyce, and parish of that 

 name, not far from the village and bay of Sandend, as seen on the 

 map, a row of trees, principally beech and larch, grows along the 

 north side of the public road leading through the parish. The trees 

 grow upon the top of a mound or ridge, at the back of which is a 

 face dyke of stone, forming the field fence, and the south side slopes 

 down to the edge of the roadside ditch. The thunder-cloud moved 

 from south to north, and the lightning struck first the wire fence on 

 the south side of the road, shattering one of the posts, and bent but 

 did not break the wires. In a straight line it crossed the road, 

 ploughing it iip, at the deepest part fully eighteen inches. In striking 

 the road, it entered at nothing, deepening as it went, and rose out of 

 it at about the same angle as it went in. On rising out of the road, 

 at about three feet from the side of the ditch, it leaped over it with- 

 out leaving a mark, and darted into the south side of the bank or 

 ridge with the trees upon it. The bank is about fifteen feet broad 

 on the top, and the trees grow along the extreme north side of it. 

 In a direct line after striking the fence post, ploughing up the road, 

 and passing through the edge of the mound, it struck a larch tree of 

 about forty years' growth, not at the surface of the ground, but about 

 four feet up. At the point where it struck the stem of the tree, 

 severing the bark, the appearance was that of having been struck 

 with a blunt-edged instrument. The bark at that season of tlie year 

 separated from the wood very readily, and it was not only stripped 

 from the stem, but from the base of the branches, and several inches 

 out from it as well. From the point where the lightning struck, it 

 cleared the bark as clean off the stem two-thirds round, and to 

 within about six feet of the top, as if done with practical and skil- 

 ful hands. On examining the stem very carefully a few days after 

 the occurrence, it was seen that only one layer of the Uber one zone 

 thick was rent off, in the form of a shred about a foot long, and 

 three-quarters of an inch broad. 



From the manner in which the bark was stripped off both stem 

 and branches, there was no doubt whatever as to the direction iu 

 which the current went from first to last while oji the ground, as 



