NOTE ON A LIGHTNING DISCHAEGE. 25 



cut off and scattered about. The bark was neither stripped off 

 nor were there any marks on it, and, beyond the sli£,dat damage 

 to some of the leaves and twigs ah'eady mentioned, there was 

 nothing to show that a powerful discharge had traversed them. 

 On the ground surrounding the trees, however, were evidences 

 of an unusual character. Around and ])etween the bases of the 

 trunks the earth was torn up to a depth of a foot or more, and 

 from these excavations, eight distinct sinuous branched trenches 

 were cut in the ground. The two longest of these were some 

 fifty-eight and fifty-four feet, the latter of which terminated in 

 a piece of water. Two of the other trenches also terminated in 

 water ; the others diminished in size as they extended from t4ie 

 trees and gradvially died out. Near the bases of the trees the 

 furrows were from nine to twelve inches deep and aboiit a foot 

 wide. The roots in the earth were all cut through, and the 

 earth, 2>ieces of root and turf had evidently been thrown out 

 with great force and scattered all over the place. 



It is quite likely that the damage to the leaves and twigs of 

 the trees may have been caused by this ejected earth, for in a 

 case in which a building in Taiping was struck some years back, 

 part of the dischnrge passed between the bricks and the plaster 

 of the wall of one room and the plaster was thrown with such 

 force that it did a large amount of damage to the contents of 

 the room, which was then used as the Museum. The velocity 

 of some of the particles of plaster was so great that they pierced 

 glass bottles at a distance of twenty feet, making clean-cut holes 

 in them. In that case it may be mentioned that the particles of 

 plaster were thrown at right angles to the line of discharge, and 

 if the same thing happened in the present instance the earth 

 would have been projected vertically uj^wards. 



In places, tunnels were cut in the earth for a length, in some 

 cases, of eight or ten feet. At the three points where the dis- 

 charge left the earth and entered the water, the earth was ejected 

 as if the direction of the impelling force was from the trees 

 towards the water, in other words as if the flash came from the 

 cloud to the earth. Two of the trenches leading to the water 

 ended in tunnels and one in an open furrow. The tunnels were 

 round pipe-like excavations aboitt three inches in diameter, with 

 their orifices on a level with the surface of the water. 



The accompanying rough sketch shows the furrows and 

 their sinuous, branched character ; the dotted lines indicate the 

 tunnels. As will be seen, the place was nearly surrotuided by 

 water, and the mere fact of the trees being pulai will l)e sufficient 

 to show that the spot was low-lying and da.mp — in fact, the 

 natural water-level in the soil is only about eighteen inches 

 beneath the surface. 



