15 



Let us consider a few more accounts of the phenomenon 

 as witnessed by observers, and see if they help to throw any light 

 upon the subject. 



In a paper read before the Linn^ean Society in 1830" Richard 

 Chambers relates how his friend James Dickson, the botanist [hence 

 presumably capable of making reliable observations] , saw an Ignis 

 Fatuus settle on a plant and tiy off again ; and how his father ' when 

 a lad observed a Jack'o-Lantern behind him which followed him 

 through the wood (Bultham Wood, Lincoln); when it came to the 

 gate it rose to clear the upper bar, and Hew into the adjoining 

 meadow.' At another time he saw two of them ' flying about each 

 other, apparently at play, which they did for a considerable time, 

 and at last settled on a furze bush.' 



He also quotes an observation recorded by Derham [a well 

 known and careful observer]. Trans, lloy. t>uc., vol. v., "My 

 own observations I made at a place that lay in a valley between 

 rocky hills, which, I suspect, might contain minerals, in some boggy 

 ground near the bottom of those hills. When seeing one in a calm 

 dead night, with gentle approaches I got up by degrees within 

 two or three yards of it, and viewed it with all the care I possibly 

 could. 1 found it frisking about a dead thistle, growing in the 

 field, until a small motion of the air (even such as was caused by 

 the approximation of myself) made it skip to another place, and 

 thence to another and another." 



[This certainly has every appearance of relating to some insect, 

 though the narrator appears to favour the mineral origin of the 

 luminosity.] 



The same author then quotes an observation of his friend 

 Thomas Stothard who said : " As I was returning from Plymouth 

 early in June, 1821, having travelled all the preceding day and 

 night, and had passed Blandford early in the morning, considerably 

 before sunrise, when objects were just distinguishable, I saw what 

 was new to me, and which fixed all my attention, for the short time 

 allowed to observe it while mounted on the outside of the coach, 

 passing at the usual rate of 7 or 8 miles an hour. On my right 

 hand, and the side on which I was placed, at the distance of 40 or 

 50 paces, appeared an irregular light, bounding or rising to the 

 height of three or four feet over some heathy shrubs which covered 

 the high and marshy ground spreading to a great extent : amongst 



* Annals of Nat. History, New Series, vol. i., 1837, p. 353. 



