118 LIVING LIGHTS. 



visible. A pale-bluish light slightly tremulous, but not broken, 

 covered the metallic parts of it, the barrel, lock and trigger. 

 The stock, too, was clearly discernible, as if by the reflected 

 light ; and to the amazement of both of us, the thumb and two 

 fingers with which Petersen was holding it, the creases, wrinkles, 

 and circuit of the nails, clearly defined upon the skin. The 

 phosphorescence was not unlike the ineffectual fire of the glow- 

 worm. As I took the pistol, my hand became illuminated also, 

 and so did the powder-rubbed paper when I raised it against the 

 muzzle. The paper did not ignite at the first trial ; but the 

 light from it continuing, I was able to charge the pistol without 

 difficulty, rolled up my paper into a cone, filled it with moss 

 sprinkled over with powder, and held it in my hand whilst I 

 fired. This time I succeeded in producing flame, and we 

 saw no more of the phosphorescence. . . . Our fur clothing 

 and the state of the atmosphere may refer it plausibly 

 enough to our electrical condition." 



Mr. James Moir of Saroch, Scotland^ relates an equally 

 strange personal experience, possibly connected with the 

 electrical condition of the atmosphere. " In February, 

 1882," he says, "this part of Scotland was visited by a 

 furious gale of wind, rain, sleet, and hail. The gale subsided 

 considerably about five o'clock in the afternoon. At eight 

 o'clock the sky was fairly clear, when a black cloud sprang 

 up in the north, and the night became suddenly intensely 

 dark. With the darkness came a tremendous shower of hail. 

 All at once I was startled by a vivid flash of lightning close 

 at hand, but without thunder. At the same instant I found 

 myself enveloped in a sheet of pale, flickering, white light. 

 It seemed to proceed from every part of my clothes, espe- 

 cially on the side least exposed to the hail ; and more particu- 



