70 Account of some Electrical Ph(snoir^ena. 



and was even accompanied with a kind or whistling noise. M. 

 Jalabert, who had a gold band upon his hat, was alarmed with 

 a buzzing noise about his head ; and having liiken off his hat, 

 and put it successively uj)on the heads of Pictet and Saussure, 

 they heard distinctly the same sound, and even obtained sparks 

 rom the golden button of the hat. The thunder cloud had now 

 moved across the valley, and was directly above their heads. The 

 thunder was loud, and the flashes of lightning so frequent^ that 

 the travellers found it prudent to descend about twenty or thirty 

 yards, where no electricity could be perceived. Tlie guides, 

 however, were so nmch delighted with the experiments, that it 

 was with great difficulty they were persuaded to abandon such a 

 dangerous amusement. A shower of rain soon afterwards fell, 

 and the storm ceased. The travellers re-asoended to the summit; 

 and although they elevated an electrical kite, they v.-ere unable 

 to perceive any indications of electricity in the atmosphere. 



Electrical phsenomena, much similar to the above, were very 

 recently observed bv a party of Englishmen, when they were 

 descending Mount ^Etna during a storm of thunder and light- 

 ning. The following particulars were communicated by Mr. 

 Gillies, surgeon, who not only read an account of the phsenomena 

 in a journal entitled Sfjecchio della scienxa e Giornale Encyclo- 

 pedica de Sicilia, whicli was published in July 1814, but received 

 an account of them from Mr. Tupper, one of the party, coin- 

 ciding in every respect with that which was given in the Sicilian 

 journal. On the 2d of June, Mr. Tupper and Mr. La;ifiar, ac- 

 companied i)y a guide, ascended Mount iEtna. — During their 

 descent, when at a little distance from the place called the 

 English House, in the regio dcserla, they were overtaken by a 

 storm of thunder and lightning, accompanied with a heavy fall 

 of snov/ ; and while running over an extensive field of snow, 

 they were struck by a flash of lightning, from which, however, 

 they experienced no serious injury. Mr. Tupper felt a painful 

 sensation in his back, which gradually ascended towards his 

 head,'' and occasioned a sensation as if his hair was moving, 

 an effect exactly similar to that which is produced cither when 

 a person is electrified upon an insulated support, or when his 

 head is presented to a prime conductor of an electrifying ma- 

 chine. This sensation induced Mr. Tupper to raise his hand to 

 his head, upon which he was surprised to hear a inizzing noise 

 proceeding from his finger. Upon raising and extending his 

 arm the noise still continued ; but upon moving his hand and 

 fiiigers in different directions, and with different degrees of ve- 

 locity, he fount' that he could produce, at jdeasure, a great va- 

 riety of harmonic sounds, differing in their tone as well as in 



their 



