An Atmospheric Phenomenon. 303 



forests, abounding in lilies of the valley, sur- 

 rounded us behind. The summer had been stormy, 

 and one evening we walked on the terrace to look 

 at the lightning, which was very fine, illuminating 

 the chain of Alps. By-and-by it ceased, and the 

 darkness was intense ; but we continued to walk, 

 when, to our surprise, a pale bluish light rose in the 

 Val di Susa, which gradually spread along the 

 summit of the Alps, and the tops of the hills behind 

 our hDuse; then a column of the same pale blue 

 light, actually within our reach, came curling up 

 from the slope close to the terrace, exactly as if wet 

 weeds had been burning. In about ten minutes the 

 whole vanished ; but in less than a quarter of an 

 hour the phenomena were repeated exactly as de- 

 scribed, and were followed by a dark night and 

 torrents of rain. It was a very unusual instance of 

 what is known as electric glow ; that is, electricity 

 without tension. 



On our road to Genoa, we went to see some kind 

 Piedmontese friends, who have a chateau in the 

 Monferrat, not many miles from Asti, where we left 

 the railroad. We had not gone many miles when 

 the carriage we had hired was upset, and, although 

 nobody had broken bones, I got so severe a blow on 

 my forehead that I was confined to bed for nearly a 

 month, and my face was black and blue for a much 



