Proceedings. 15 



The sketch was taken immediately after the event by Miss 

 M. Faraday. The tall trees shown in the sketch (see oppo- 

 site page) are balsam poplars, the two smaller ones being 

 common ash trees. The relative heights of the trees are 

 correctly indicated in the sketch. The direction of the line 

 of trees is roughly from west to east, the solitary poplar 

 beyond the ash trees on the right hand side of the sketch 

 being the west end. A lady seated at the dining-room 

 window of Ramsay Lodge, facing the east end of the line 

 of trees, the direction of the window being at a right angle 

 to the line of the trees, observed the flash coming towards 

 her as a tube of blue flame. The tree struck was the third 

 from the east end, and the only damage done to it was the 

 stripping of the bark, from a point where the trunk forks, to 

 the ground, as shown by the white portion of the trunk in 

 the sketch. This stripping apparently began at a point under 

 the stump of a broken branch projecting from the side 

 towards the ash trees, and it curved round to the side of the 

 tree as seen in the sketch, increasing in width to the extent 

 •of the full diameter of the trunk as it approached the ground. 

 Fragments of the bark were strewed about the ground, at 

 the foot of the tree, but there was no appearance of injury 

 to the foliage or any stripping of the leaves. A heavy rain 

 storm preceded and accompanied the flash, and the foliage 

 was probably thoroughly drenched, the lower part of the 

 trunk being, however, protected by the leaves, while the 

 point where the stripping of the bark began was further pro- 

 tected by the projecting fragment of branch. Mr. Faraday 

 pointed out that the line of foliage of the ash trees was con- 

 tinuous with that of the tree which was struck opposite the 

 point where the stripping of the bark began, the branches 

 interlacing ; while at the east side of the tree there was a 

 clear gap between its foliage and that of the next tree on 

 that side. He suggested that the charge might be carried 

 through the wet foliage of the stricken poplar and ash trees 



