1871, ] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 147 
Mr. H. F. Blanford mentioned that he had been informed by 
Mr. James of a very striking instance of this kind. At Bunnoo, 
which was frequently visited by severe thunderstorms, he was 
informed that an observatory erected for the G.T, Survey was pro- 
tected by a lightning conductor, which was described as a thick 
iron rod. Thisrod was, as Mr. James assured him, subsequently 
found on the ground as a fused mass of iron, and having been re- 
moved was in another year found to have been fused like the 
former, and in a like condition. This effect was ascribed to light- 
ning. 
The President said they were indebted to Mr. James for a very 
graphic description of a thunderstorm. Some of the phenomena 
mentioned did not appear to be easy of explanation. The mode in 
which Mr. Blanford accounted for the manifestation of sparks or 
coruscations on the horizontal portion alone of the conductor was 
ingenious, but did not seem altogether satisfactory. Falling drops 
would, he supposed, pass in just as close proximity to the vertical 
portion of the rod as to the horizontal. Without any disparagement 
to Mr. James, it might perhaps be doubted whether he had been able 
to possess himself of the actual phenomena with complete accuracy. 
No class of phenomena was so difficult of precise observation, as that 
with which Mr. James had to deal, both on account of the extreme 
shortness of their duration, and the absence of a standard of com- 
parison andmeasurement. In one particular, Mr. James had evi- 
dently been misled. The mutual recession and approach of two 
clouds upon the passage of a flash of lightning between them, 
of which he spoke, was illusory. The flash merely illumined and go 
revealed an interval between two cloud masses, which before were not 
separable from a back ground connecting them, and when the light 
disappeared again, the apparent connection was resumed. The ~ 
mental impression produced by this rapid succession of events 
gave rise most naturally to the idea of relative motion of the two 
cloud masses. But actual motion to the same angular extent of 
oscillation as that which is, in this way, apparent in the instant of 
the flash would be something truly enormous! 
The storm was evidently one of the ordinary type prevalent 
here at this time of the year. A lower vapour-bearing current 
