26 Ob fervations on the Fog of 1783: 
like phenomena were obferved the fame day in feveral other 
places. In feveral villages through which I pafled, I was 
thewn a great number of trees firipped of their bark by 
the Chitaliae ; and I remarked that the part of the bark, or 
wood, carried away, was almoft always broad at the bottom 
of the tree, and narrow at the fummit. It would feem as if 
the lightning had met with obftacles, and that it had not 
the fame force when it attacked the higher parts of the tree. 
fn my opinion the thunder which produced thefe effects was \ 
alk afcending; and I often obferved holes at the roots of the 
trees which had been deprived of their bark, I obferved alfo 
that dry land had been lefs firuck with the lightning than 
 moitt Jand, which induces me to believe that the greater part 
of the thunder that year was afcending. 
Il. Thgughts on the Origin of the Eleétric Fog. 
Seyeral philofophers adopted the opinion of the populace,, 
and confidercd this fog as a natural effect of the earthquake 
which laid watte Badly and a part of Calabria, ‘oaldo 
thought that all thefe exhalations were brought from Cala- 
Bria re Sicily by the winds which blew Fins the fouth- 
ward: but this refpe&table philofopher, at the time when 
he wrote, did not know that the fog was almoft’ general 
throughout Eurepe. Befides, the earthquakes in Calabria 
aud a5 took place chiefly im February, and the fog did not 
appear till the middle of June; that is to fay, till more than 
four months after. In my ppimion, then, this fog was not 
eccafioned by the earthquakes of Calabria and Sicily; but 
the fog and thefe earthquakes, as weil as thofe which we are 
aflured took place in Iceland, had a common caufe, which 
produced different effects according as they were modified 
by circumftances and the nature of the places. Let us now 
fearch for this caufe; we fhall find it in the annals of mete- 
erology, and nothing is neceflary, but to diftiaguith it 
I have faid, in another place “, that the conttitution of the 
atmofphere depends chiefly on the nature and form of the 
ground, and that the revolutions of the air are fubjeét to the 
* FJournal de Phyfique, Mars 1782, p. 187- 
TEVOx 
