140 THUNDER Sc LIGHTNING. [Lesson XXIf. 



With regard to the degree of danger in storms 

 of Thunder and Lightning, it is not easy to speak 

 with precision : though it may be noticed, that it 

 seems to depend chiefly on the distance from the 

 track of the electric fluid: which distance is greater 

 or less in proportion as a greater or less interval of 

 time elapses, between seeing the flash and hearing 

 the explosion. If a person can count five pulsa- 

 tions between the flash and the succeeding clap of 

 Thunder, he may infer that the cloud is a mile dis- 

 tant. For ten pulsations the distance is two 

 miles, and so on. 



As to places of safety from the danger of these 

 storms, the general opinion is that the open fields 

 are more safe than under cover of a house : those 

 who are in the fields at such times, would do well 

 to place themselves within 50 yards of a tree, but 

 by no means quite near it. It is generally thought 

 safer to have one's clothes wet than dry, as the 

 Lightning might then in a great measure be trans- 

 mitted to the ground, by the water on the outside 

 of the body. Under cover, people are advised to 

 sit near the middle of a room on one chair, and 

 lay the feet on another, observing that no metals, 

 as candlesticks, iron chains, &c. are near. A 

 still better method is, to place the chairs upon 

 mattresses or feather-beds : a safer way yet is, 

 to be in a hammock hung on silken cords at 

 an equal distance from all the sides of the room. 

 But the place of greatest safety must be in a 

 deep cellar, and especially the middle of it: for 



when 



