622 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO J 762. 



and the like time nearly in retiring. About half past 1 1 he was obliged to move 

 homewards, and as he passed by the brim of the water, observed that the sea 

 advanced and retired, and was not settled; but the alterations were then small, 

 and scarcely perceptible. In the more western parts of this bay, the agitations 

 were very apparent; and, by the papers, the like agitations were felt in the har- 

 bours of Falmouth, Fawy, and Plymouth. 



On the same day, about 8 o'clock p. m. the wind at east, Fahrenheit's ther- 

 mometer at 64, the atmosphere continuing in the same calm, sultry, and grumb- 

 ling temperature, the fiercest lightning, accompanied in the same moment with 

 a thunderclap, broke over Ludgvan church ; it came from the northwest, and 

 fell on the southern pinnacle of the east side of the church tower. The light- 

 ning threw down great part of the pinnacle and stones of the tower, then de- 

 scended by the belfry and steeple, doing much damage in its course, and passed 

 through the body of the church, damaging the pews, &c. but particularly the 

 pulpit and altar. 



More furious still was the thunder storm on the 11th of January last, which 

 fell on the church and tower of Bre^g, about 7 miles east of this place. About 

 a quarter past 4 p. m. the barometer as low as 28, the wind blowing hard at south 

 west, on a sudden it grew very dark, and a shower of hail, not remarkably large, 

 followed, accompanied with the fiercest flash of lightning and the most violent 

 explosion of thunder; the lightning and thunder being almost instantaneous. 

 The havock made on the church is past description or conception. The western 

 side of the tower was rent from almost the top to the bottom, the crack not in a 

 straight line but irregular, and from 1 to 5 inches wide; the south east pinnacle 

 split into a thousand pieces, and scattered all over the spacious church-yard and 

 church town ; two of the battlements on the western, and four on the eastern 

 and southern sides of the tower struck off, and every one of the windows of the 

 church, excepting one in the jet out north aisle, shattered to pieces, presented a 

 most dismal prospect. 



It is diflicult to say in what direction the force proceeded, it is apprehended 

 it must have penetrated the tower, through the middle of the arch over the bel- 

 fry door, which though locked and strongly bolted, was burst open; the centre 

 of the arch was divided, and the top stone of that remarkably fine one over the 

 window cracked athwart; the lightning must therefore have passed directly up 

 the tower, through the midst of the wall, the outside of which has the exact 

 appearance of being battered by cannon-ball, and is quite bulged out between 

 the first and second ring. Had not this been the case, how could such a large 

 quantity of entire stones, and fragments of others of a prodigious size, be forc^ 

 out of their places, as well on the inside as the outside of the wall } 



The stones of the pinnacles and battlements were scattered in all directions; 



