— 48 METEOROLOGICAL 
stars or suns, and the flame, all of which doubt- 
less belong to our present subject. 
Lord Napier observed the fire of St. Elmo in 
the Mediterranean during a fearful thunderstorm. 
As he was retiring to rest, a cry from those aloft 
of “St. Elmo and St. Anne!” induced him to go 
on deck. ‘The maintop-gallant-mast head was 
completely enveloped in a blaze of pale, phosphoric 
light, and the other mast-heads presented a similar 
appearance. ‘The phenomenon lasted for eight or 
ten minutes, and then became gradually fainter. 
All other descriptions of this electrical phenomenon 
coincide perfectly with the above. 
The Zodiacal light, when seen under the tropics, 
often shines with a brilliancy equal to that of the 
Milky Way in Sagittarius. In our Northern cli- 
mates, it 1s only observed shooting up towards 
the Pleiades in the beginning of spring, after the 
evening twilight, in the western part of the sky ; 
and at the close of autumn, before the dawn of 
day, above the eastern horizon. 
Some philosophers have asserted that the sun’s 
light is an effect of combustion, like the flame of a 
common candle; but, from a comparison of the rela- 
tive intensities of solar, lunar, and artificial ight, 
as determined by Huler and Wollaston, 1t appears 
that the rays of the sun have an illuminating power 
equal to that of 14,000 candles at the distance of a 
foot, or of 3,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 
