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- Miscellanies. 393 
br / 
Mr. Lea is in error in supposing that his shell and the Cerithium 
Menke, (C. reticulatum, 'Totten,) among which it was found, are 
m Bost Ithough in Col. Totten’s description of the latter spe- 
cies, Boston harbor is mentioned as its habitat, it has not probably been 
found north of or within Cape Cod, its extreme limit being Province- 
town, where it was found by Dr. Gould. The shells in question were 
obtained in Dartmouth, Mass., where they were clinging to the Zostera 
marina below low-water mark. Very respectfully, 
a 
E 
C. B. Avams. 
Middlebury, Vt., Feb. 15, 1842. 
10. Notice of some facts connected with a stroke of lightning, in a 
letter from Rev. James H. Linstey,* dated Stratford, Conn., Sept. 9, 
1841, : 
Prof. Sitttman—Dear Sir: Early in June, 1821, four men, who 
had been engaged in fishing, were cleaning shad upon a plank ten or 
twelve feet in length, one end of which was resting upon the edge of a 
stump, and the other upon an empty flour barrel, the latter being to- 
wards the river. A large pile of the offals of shad was lying around 
the stump ; a steel pointed pitchfork was standing by the plank, which, 
as well as the prongs of the pitchfork, was smeared with the fish-oil. 
A heavy shower had commenced, and the men took : shelter in a shed 
about twenty five or thirty five feet off, when the lightning struck the 
Stump, splitting it to pieces, until it came down to the fishes’ entrails 
and heads that were piled around it. Below them it did not affect the 
stump or the ground, nor injure the plank, or the pitchfork by it on the 
barrel ; but took the ground at the lower end of the barrel, and thence 
ploughed a furrow until tt came to a rock about five feet in length or 
two or three feet horizontal thickness, weighing several tons, through 
which it passed, leaving one side broken in several pieces, and the 
other side unbroken, with a square face, as if sawed through. T he 
rock is thinly laminated, but the lightning did not separate the lamine ; 
it cut across nearly at right angles, i. e. varying only twelve degrees, 
the lamine being nearly perpendicular to the horizon. From the rock, 
the lightning passed to the water and disappeared. In a few moments, 
however, many dead fishes of various species rose upon the surface 
of the river; they appeared to come up “as they do when the ice over 
them in winter is struck by an axe.” The effect upon the men in the 
shed was singular: one was seen from the dwelling house (about five 
rods distant) to stoop down as though picking up something with both 
* The facts were communicated to Mr. Linsley by Mr. S. Crowfut, the owner 
of the place where the event occurred. 
Vol. xx, No. 2.—Jan.-March, 1842. 50 
