220 OF ELECTRICITY. CHAP. 7. 5. 



SECTION V. 



Of several other Electrical Phaenomcna. 



To the above described electrical pbaenomena 

 may be added several other dissimilar appear- 

 ances, referable to the same principle, operating 

 under different circumstances. Waterspouts 

 probably result from the attraction of a nimbus 

 for the water over which it may be, whence 

 both are violently drawn towards each other till 

 they meet :* and when the Electricity of the 

 cloud has been equalized with that of the 

 water, the column comes down. Though this 

 effect is, to a certain degree, explainable on this 

 supposition; yet, as, in other instances, the 



* A friend of mine calls this contact of the waters from 

 below with those from above., Neptune shaking hands with 

 Jove. 



many curious accounts and figures of the Aurora may be 

 found. For further accounts, consult Phil. Trans. Also 

 Bertholon, Elec. Met. vol. ii. p. 49. 



Since the publication of the first edition of this book, the 

 phaenomenon of the Aurora Borealis has again attracted the 

 notice of meteorologists in this country ; but they have neither 

 been so grand, nor so frequent as formerly. 



