PHOSPHORESCENCE. 67 



number of persons I have questioned upon the 

 subject all agree in stating that they have noticed 

 it in autumn, or towards the end of autumn, and 

 the beginning of November. It cannot be termed 

 a common phenomenon, as many distinguished 

 naturalists have never been able to observe it; 

 it is not unfrequent in the north of Germany, and 

 is often witnessed in the peat districts around 

 Port Carlisle, in the Lowlands of Scotland, and in 

 the swampy parts of the South of England, etc. 

 It was seen by Mr. Warltire, in a very curious 

 form, on the road to Bromsgrove, about five miles 

 from Birmingham, as noted by Dr. Priestley in the 

 Appendix to his third volume of ' Experiments and 

 Observations on Air/ The time of observation 

 was the 12th December, 1776, before daylight. 



Some countries are very remarkable for this 

 curious phenomenon ; for instance, the neighbour- 

 hood of Bologna, in Italy, and some parts of 

 Spain and Ethiopia. According to an account 

 left us by M. Beccari, an intelligent gentleman 

 travelling in the evening, between eight and nine 

 o' clock, in a mountainous road about ten miles 

 South of Bologna, perceived a light which shone 

 very strangely upon some stones on the banks of 

 the Rio Verde. It appeared as a parallelepiped 

 of light, about a foot in length, and two feet above 

 the stones. Its light was so strong that he could 

 plainly see by it part of a neighbouring hedge and 



