46 METEOROLOGICAL 



parts of tlie mounting of his horse's trappings, 

 emitted jets of light. 



A friend of Howard, the meteorologist, on his 

 way from London to Bow on the 19th of May, 

 1809, during a violent storm, distinctly saw the 

 drops of rain emit light when they struck the 

 ground. 



On the 25th of January, 1822, the miners of 

 Freyburg informed Lampadius that the sleet which 

 fell during a storm emitted light when it struck 

 the earth. 



There are other similar instances ; these pheno- 

 mena are evidently closely allied to electricity. 



Waterspouts (called by the French les trombes), 

 according to Peltier and more recent observers, 

 are sometimes observed to be luminous when they 

 happen in the night. 



A case of luminous meteoric dust is also on 

 record : During the eruption of Vesuvius which 

 took place in 1794, a shower of extremely fine 

 dust fell in Naples and its environs. It emitted 

 light which, though pale, was distinctly visible at 

 night. An English gentleman, who happened to 

 be in a boat near Torre del Greco about this time, 

 observed that his hat, those of the boatmen, and 

 parts of the sails where the dust had lodged, shed 

 around a sensible luminosity. 



Shooting stars, or meteoric stones, leave after 

 them in the heavens a phosphoric stream of light, 



