BEDDOELERT TO HARLECH. *j 



Mcrfli Bycaan, The Little Marfi:^ acrofs the channel 

 eight miles tov/ards Harlech." This injured much 

 of the prafs in fuch a manner as to kill the cattle: 

 and it fet hay and corn-ricks on fire for near a mils 

 from the coafl. It is reprefented to have had the 

 appe?.rance of a blue lambent flame, v/hich by any 

 great noife, fuch as the firing of guns, or the found- 

 ing of horns, was eafily extinguifiied. All the 

 damage was invariably done in the night ; and, in 

 the courfe of the winter, no fewer than fixteen hay- 

 ricks, and two barns, one filled with hay, and the 

 other with corn, were entirely deftroyed by it. It 

 did not feem to affeft any thing elfe, and men could 

 go into it without receiving the leaft injury. It 

 was obferved much more frequently during the 

 firfl three weeks than afterwards, yet it was feen, 

 at different intervals, for at leafl eight months. The 

 occafion of this fmgular phenomenon is not exa61:ly 

 known. It appears mofl probably^ to have arifen 

 from fome ccllettlons of putrid fubftances, the vapour 

 coming from which might have been directed to- 

 wards this place by the wind ; and yet it is fmgular 

 that, although tlie prevailing winds here are from 

 the foiith-wcft, v/hich ought to have blov/n it in a 

 very different direction, it flibuld not have been 

 obferved in other parts north of Harlech. Bifliop 

 Gibfon conjedured that it .might have proceeded 

 from the corrupted bodies of a great quantity of 

 locuPcs which vifited this kinQ;dom about that time, 

 and v/ere deftroyed by the coldnefs of the climate. 



He 



