626 JAMAICA. 



creep on to' the utmoft extremity of fome cape or headland, till they 

 reach the fea. 



According to Mr. Franklin's theory, a fea-cloud, charged with the 

 flcdiic matter, paffing over a land-cloud, which is non-eledlrifed, parts 

 with its tire by the atti-aftion of this inferior cloud, and transfers fo 

 much ir.to it, till they are both brought to a par. 



This do£lrine may help us In accounting for the frequency of 

 thunder and lightning in feme didrifts of the mountains. Lightning 

 happens ofteneft in the midland range, and Weftern extremity of the 

 ifland. The land-wind, when it is frefh at night, blows off a large 

 collection of vapours, confiding partly of exhalations after rain fallen 

 during the day, of fogs, or of clouds drained of their eleftric matter, 

 by repeated difcharges. 



Thefe in their paflage over the mountains are often retarded by the 

 atmofphere, perhaps, of lofty woods, or currents of reverberated air, 

 and do not fail many leagues out at fea till morning j on the fetting- 

 in of the trade or breeze, they are forced back again upon the land, 

 and the fea-clouds that follow, being raifed much higher, Injedl their 

 eleftric charges copioufly into thefe non- eleftrifed land- vapours, as foon 

 as they come within the fphere of their a£lion. In general thefe land- 

 clouds hang low [0], rarely floating above two-thirds the height of 

 the Blue Mountain ridges, and are loweft during heavy rains; at which 

 time, there feems to be a concatenation of vapour from the upper- 

 moft cloud downwards, refembling a bundle of wooll fufpended In the 

 air, the loweft flocks appearing broken and divellicated near the earth. 

 After the land has been parched with continued heat and drought, thefe 

 lower fleeces hang fo little a difl:ance above the furface, as to feel fome 

 effeft from its reflected warmth, anddiflblve into rain. The firft fprink- 

 ling is feen to re-afcend from the ground, like vapour from a hot iron 

 plunged into water. Thefe effluvia, being of the nature of land clouds 

 and non-eleftrifed, fometimes do not alcend far before the eleftric 

 fluid is imparted to them from above; whence it follows, that, if any 

 building, tree, or animal, be within its fphere of attradlion, fome 

 fatal accident may happen. 



The lightning which does mifchlef ufually feems to dart In a con- 

 tinued ftream, the velocity of motion giving it that appearance, and 

 falls on fome objeft elevated above the earth's furface, not always pre- 

 ferring the higheft ; but felefting that conductor which has Ibme- 

 thing of iron, or pointed materials to attra(it it. 



[/] Occafioncd by the gicat rarefaiflion of the atjnofjihere, wliich favouis their defcent thioughj 

 a medium fpccifically lighter than themfclves. 



4 • A houfe, 



