NOTE ON A LIGHTNING DISCHARGE IN 

 TAIPING. 



During a tliunder-storm on the afternoon of Sunday, the 

 5th March, 1893, two trees in the garden of Colonel Walker, 

 at Taiping, were struck by lightning. The case is worthy of 

 record, as there were several points of considerable interest 

 connected with it. The trees which were struck are both what 

 the Malays call "pulai" {alstonia scliolaris). They are not large 

 ones, and there are several considerably taller close by. They 

 are situated in a small hollow surrounded on three sides by high 

 ground, the slopes of which are dotted over with trees, while on 

 the top of the rising ground are three buildings furnished with 

 lightning conductors. The buildings are Colonel Walker's 

 house, the magazine on the fort, and the Secretary to Govern- 

 ment's quarters. The two pulai trees are therefore in no way 

 conspicuous objects, and it is hard to luiderstand why they 

 should have been struck when the visible aspects of the situa- 

 tion are alone taken into account ; but the state of the atmos- 

 phere may have been such that a path of lower electrical 

 resistance was opened to the discharge through these trees than 

 through the higher ones close by. 



Tennyson aptly describes this condition in the lines — 



" The ragged rims of thunder brooding low, 

 With shadow-streaks of rain," 



These shadow-streaks, wliich are such a noticeable feature 

 of tropical ram-storms, offer an easy explanation of the other- 

 wise unaccountable occasional selection by lightning of incon- 

 spicuous objects. They often cover, with their bases, quite a 

 small area of ground, and their density is such that they must 

 offer very much less resistance to the j^assage of an electric 

 current than the surrounding air. 



The trees themselves were not injured, except that the toj) 

 shoot of one was broken and that some twigs and leaves were 



