398 PHILOSOPHY OF STORMS. 



charged, about the sloop, and one of the persons before- 

 mentioned, received a much more violent shock, which 

 caused him to fall on the deck instantaneously. He was at 

 this time drenched with water, and from this cause, proba- 

 bly, revived sufficiently to get to the cabin. In a short 

 time he felt no other effects from the shock but a numbness 

 which affected his arms for an indefinite period. While he 

 lay on the deck, a gentleman standing by observed nu- 

 merous flashes or sparks of light about his body, resembling 

 those issuing from a firebrand when whirled swiftly round. 

 They were accompanied by a crackling, snapping noise. 

 Another person experienced a slight shock which occasioned 

 such numbness in one of his arms as to prevent his using it 

 for a short time. There was an iron spindle at the top of 

 the mast, for suspending the colors, but no lightning rod. 

 No injury was done to the sloop. Was that part of the 

 cloud from which the lightning issued lower than the top of 

 the mast? 



Several, then on the deck, noticed that at this time the 

 rain descended in streams and sheets. The gentleman 

 above mentioned, states that at orte time the water on the 

 quarter deck accumulated so fast, from the rain only, as to 

 be higher than his shoes. 



A gentleman in the south store, at the Point, feeling much 

 anxiety for his friends on the sloop, observed the phe- 

 nomena of the storm with more exactness than any one 

 with whom I have conversed. His account is as follows : 



When the clouds met, they appeared to fall down on the 

 river, between the store and Livingston's wharf, on the east 

 bank. The cloud rested upon the water in such a manner 

 that he could discover no space between them. As it came 

 over, it appeared extremely dark at the bottom, and as 

 white as a snow bank at the top. The air became so ob- 

 scure, suddenly, that he was unable to see any part of a 

 large perriauger which lay at his wharf, thirty feet distant, 



