3 i 4 PETER GUTHRIE TAIT 



days when cholera was raging most formidably in Paris, the heat was suffocating, 

 the sky appeared calm, but summer lightning was visible on all sides. Madame 

 Espert saw from her window something like a large red globe, exactly resembling 

 the moon, when it is seen through mist. It was descending slowly towards a tree. 

 She at first thought it was a balloon, but its colour undeceived her; and while she 

 was trying to make out what it was, she saw the lower part of it take fire ("fe vis 

 le feu prendre au has de ce globe"), while it was still some yards above the tree. 

 The flames were like those of paper burning slowly, with sparks and jets of fire. 

 When the opening became twice or thrice the size of one's hand, a sudden and 

 terrific explosion took place. The infernal machine was torn to pieces, and a dozen 

 flashes of zig-zag lightning escaped from it in all directions. The dtbris of the 

 globe burned with a brilliant white light, and revolved like a catherine-wheel. The 

 whole affair lasted for at least a minute. A hole was bored in the wall of a house, 

 three men were knocked down in the street, and a governess was wounded in a 

 neighbouring school, besides a good deal of other damage. 



As another instance, here is a description (taken from Dove) of one which fell 

 at Barbadoes, in 1831, during a terrific hurricane: At three o'clock in the morning 

 the lightning ceased for a few moments, and the darkness which enveloped the 

 town was indescribably terrible. Fiery meteors now fell from the clouds ; one in 

 particular, of spherical form, and of a deep red colour, fell perpendicularly from a 

 considerable height. This fire-ball fell quite obviously by its own weight, and not 

 under the influence of any other external force. As with accelerated velocity it 

 approached the earth it became dazzlingly white, and of elongated form. When it 

 touched the ground it splashed all about like melted metal, and instantly disappeared. 

 In form and size it resembled a lamp globe ; and the splashing about at impact 

 gave it the appearance of a drop of mercury of the same size. 



I have never seen one myself, but I have received accounts of more than one 

 of them from competent and thoroughly credible eye-witnesses. In particular on a 

 stormy afternoon in November, 1868, when the sky was densely clouded over, and 

 the air in a highly electrical state, there was heard in Edinburgh one solitary short, 

 but very loud, clap of thunder. There can be no doubt whatever that this was due 

 to the explosion of a fire-ball, which was seen by many spectators in different parts 

 of the town, to descend towards the Calton Hill, and to burst whilst still about a 

 hundred feet or so above the ground. The various accounts tallied in most particulars, 

 and especially in the very close agreement of the positions assigned to the ball by 

 spectators viewing it from different sides, and in the intervals which were observed 

 to elapse between the explosion and the arrival of the sound. 



The remaining phenomena of a thunderstorm are chiefly the copious fall of 

 rain and of hail, and the almost invariable lowering of the barometer. These are 

 closely connected with one another, as we shall presently see. 



Almost all the facts to which I have now adverted point to water-substance, in 

 some of its many forms, as at least one of the chief agents in thunderstorms. And 

 when we think of other tremendous phenomena which are undoubtedly due to water, 

 we shall have the less difficulty in believing it to be capable of producing thunder- 

 storms also, 



