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hovering over the peat pots, moved for the distance of about fifty 

 yards nearly parallel with the road, and then, probably on the 

 failure of the supply of gas suddenly went out. In order to obviate 

 the question, was not this the alighting of the insect, supposing it 

 to have been one? I inquired whether the light approached the 

 ground on going out, and find that it did not, but the manner of 

 its disappearance was similar to that of a candle being blown out." 



Now although Mr. Wailes assumes the gaseous origin of the 

 light thus seen by his father, it is scarcely conceivable that a flame 

 thus caused could behave as described ; hover about three feet from 

 the ground and then move for fifty yards or so. It is much more 

 like the motions of some insect. Its size, ' as big as a hand,' is 

 certainly too large for a Ghost Swift with wings outspread, though 

 it would not take much exaggeration to transform it to that. 

 Against the possible insect origin of the appearance, Mr. Wailes 

 argues that it did not approach the ground before going out 

 (presumably thinking of the Mole Cricket) ; but if it alighted on a 

 stem, as a Ghost Swift might, with its ventral side towards the 

 spectator it would apparently go out not unlike a candle. 



But to some accounts that I will now quote it is not possible to 

 assign this explanation. 



Mr. Chambers, before quoted, gives a description of an Ignis 

 Fatuus seen by a young coachman and related to his friend Mr. 

 Cole, Surgeon. " I was coming home with the boy from looking 

 after the sheep at the farther side of the farm. Our path lay near 

 a hedge ; and on a sudden there appeared at a distance a ball of fire 

 about as big as my head. We stopped ; and it came directly 

 towards us. It had a dancing kind of motion, and advanced under 

 the hedge till it came quite close to us ; it then divided into a dozen 

 or twenty parts, forming so many balls of fire about the size of my 

 fist, which flew apart from each other, and played about for a short 

 time. They then joined together again into one large ball, and 

 turned over the hedge into the next field." When asked if he 

 thought it like the playing of gnats or flies in the sun (I wonder 

 what prompted this question !) he said it was precisely similar. 

 The occurrence was in the spring, and the ground dry with no 

 marshy ground in the vicinity. 



This obviously could not have been a Ghost Swift, but neither 

 does it conform to our ideas of a Will-o'-the-Wisp. 



In the same volume also appears the following extract, taken 

 from the Kentish Gazette: — " On Tuesday evening, July 4th, 1837, 



