48 METEOR OL GICAL 



stars or suns, and the flame, all of which doubt- 

 less belong to our present subject. 



Lord Napier observed the fire of St. Elmo in 

 the Mediterranean during a fearful thunderstorm. 

 As he was retiring to rest, a cry from those aloft 

 of " St. Elmo and St. Anne \" induced him to go 

 on deck. The maintop-gallant-mast head was 

 completely enveloped in a blaze of pale, phosphoric 

 light, and the other mast-heads presented a similar 

 appearance. The phenomenon lasted for eight or 

 ten minutes, and then became gradually fainter. 

 All other descriptions of this electrical phenomenon 

 coincide perfectly with the above. 



The Zodiacal light, when seen under the tropics, 

 often shines with a brilliancy equal to that of the 

 Milky Way in Sagittarius. In our Northern cli- 

 mates, it is only observed shooting up towards 

 the Pleiades in the beginning of spring, after the 

 evening twilight, in the western part of the sky ; 

 and at the close of autumn, before the dawn of 

 day, above the eastern horizon. 



Some philosophers have asserted that the sun's 

 light is an effect of combustion, like the flame of a 

 common candle; but, from a comparison of the rela- 

 tive intensities of solar, lunar, and artificial light, 

 as determined by Euler and Wollaston, it appears 

 that the rays of the sun have an illuminating power 

 equal to that of 14,000 candles at the distance of a 

 foot, or of 3,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 



