ARTIFICIAL RAINS. 507 



phur, which caught the faggots, and soon kindled snch a 

 flame as before this time no one had ever seen kindled by 

 the art of man : and the Plateans, who had baffled all other 

 efforts, very narrowly were delivered from perishing by its 



f ur y It is now reported that a heavy rain, falling on 



a sudden, attended with claps of thunder, extinguished the 

 farces and put an end to this eminent danger." [Siege of 

 Platea, Thucidides, book 2, page 81, of Smith's version. 



" In the year 1779, a party of British came into Con- 

 necticut and plundered New Haven, where Yale College 

 is situated. They burned Fairfield and Norwalk, and 

 some other places. Fairfield was burned just at evening. 

 A thunder storm came up at the same time and added 

 greatly to the horrors of the scene." [History of the United 

 States. 



TREMONT HOUSE, June 18, 1839. 

 JAMES P. ESPY, ESQ., 



209. DEAR SIR, Observing that yon are about to deliver 

 a course of lectures in Boston, I deem it not impertinent to 

 relate a conversation which I recently had with my brother, 

 who spent the last winter in Florida. 



My brother informed me, that it was the practice of the 

 planters there, to set fire to the reeds, brush wood, arid tall 

 grass, which cover the marshes in that country, and that 

 those fires were generally succeeded by copious rains. He 

 spoke of one instance in particular, when a large mass of 

 wood, which had been collected together, to the extent of 

 from one to two thousand cords, and being fired, produced 

 an immense column of blaze and smoke, extending to a 

 great height, immediately after which, clouds began to form 

 in all directions, and rain fell in such torrents, that before 

 morning, the fire was completely extinguished ; leaving the 

 large trunks of the trees unconsumed. 



I have written to my brother, and requested him to fur- 



