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most peculiar coincidences :—(1) Renewal of eruption of Mont 
Pelée on morning of May 28 ; peculiar atmospheric disturbance 
at the Cape, simultaneous with earthquake shock there. (2) 
Renewal of irregularities in pressure curve on May 29 and 31 
and early morning of June 1, there being renewed volcanic dis- 
turbances in West Indies on or about these same dates. The 
curve for these last two days is remarkable, resembling closely 
a series of ripples and suggesting ‘‘ interference ” effects. 
Which was cause and which effect, or is there any correlation 
whatever ? CHARLES STEWART. 
Meteorological Commission, Cape Town, July 16. 
A Tripartite Stroke of Lightning. 
Ar about 6.50 p.m. on August 7, after two or three pre- 
liminary low thunder rumblings, which by no means prepared 
us for what was to come, a most tremendous crash of combined 
thunder, lightning and electric discharge burst right over my 
residence here. 
My butler, who was looking in the direction of our front 
gate, 8o yards to the north of our front door, saw a burst of 
smoke, mingled with a shower of leaves, rise into the air out of 
the adjoining shrubbery. 
My coachman, who was sitting just within the open door of 
the lodge, close to the front gate, was dazed by a vivid burst 
of flame at his feet which seemed to leap into the doorway. 
My neighbour’s gardener, looking out of the lodge opposite, 
saw a nearly horizontal flash of fire enter the shrubbery close to 
my front gate. 
A subsequent examination of the surroundings of the front 
gate and my coachman’s lodge has revealed :— 
(1) A tearing up of the ground close to the massive iron post 
of the front gate, the splitting of a large flint at its foot, and a 
litter of ivy leaves on the gravel. 
(2) The clean cutting in two of an oak post, 35 yards dis- 
tant to the north-east, from which an iron hand-gate was 
hanging. 
(3) The scorching of the outside foliage of a horse-chestnut 
some 15 yards still further off, in a direct line with the other 
two objects struck. 
In thirty years’ experience of thunderstorms, which are rather 
frequent here, I have never observed the simultaneous striking 
of three different points by the electric discharge. A death-like 
stillness succeeded the crash, the storm appearing to have 
exhausted itself in a single tremendous explosion. Heavy rain 
was falling when the crash occurred. I have measured an inch 
and a half of rain-fall within the last three days. 
Six Mile Bottom, Cambs., August 8. W. H. Hatt. 
Colours between Clouds at Sunset. 
ABOUT sunset on the evening of Sunday, July 13, being at 
Ripon with my son, our attention was arrested by an unusual 
appearance, which I will briefly describe. Two large clouds, 
covering a considerable portion of the western sky, and separated 
by an interval leading generally towards the west, were each 
bordered along this interval by a bright and well-marked double 
spectrum. The two spectra forming this were together of the 
width of about one and a half times the diameter of the sun ; 
they followed the foldings of the edge of the clouds, and, which 
suggests a partial explanation, were at right angles to a fringe 
of nebulous strize, which bordered the clouds, so that, except 
that the spectral colours were parallel instead of consecutive, 
the phenomenon had in some degree the appearance of the 
reflection from a grating. 
Our observation lasted about twenty minutes, and it was 
especially noticeable that when, through the fading light, the 
more refrangible colours had disappeared, the two red lines on 
the rim of each cloud remained clearly marked to the last. 
Never having previously seen or even heard of such an appear- 
ance, any information on the subject would be much appreciated. 
I might also report that on the evening of July 17 the pink 
streamers mentioned by some of your correspcndents could be 
well observed, and had they been less stable, and had they 
radiated from the north instead of from the position of the 
setting sun, the appearance would have much resembled the 
Aurora Borealis. JouHN BADDELEY. 
Adswood, Bury New Road, Higher Broughton, 
Manchester. 
NO. 1711, VOL. 66] 
NATURE 
[AuGusT 14, 1902 
Retention of Leaves by Deciduous Trees, 
OnE of the proofs in favour of this being caused by early 
ftost is that frequently on exposed beech and other deciduous 
trees only the leaves near the ground are affected and remain 
brown on the trees until the spring. Leaves higher up escape 
the frost and fall normally, as these early frosts are usually con- 
fined to the strata of air near the ground, W. R. FISHER. 
Coopers Hill, Englefield Green, Surrey, August 8. 
THE WEST INDIAN ERUPTIONS. 
MONGST the last contributions to our knowledge of 
the eruptions which so recently devastated portions 
of the West Indies are five preliminary reports to the 
National Geographic Society. These, with excellent 
illustrations, appear in the July magazine of the Society. 
In the following notes upon these reports attention is 
drawn to those portions of their contents which are not 
generally known, and to these are added a few obser- 
vations made by witnesses, particularly those made by 
Captain E. W. Freeman, of the s.s. Roddam, whose 
experiences, although he was interviewed by members of 
the American expedition, have as yet received but slight 
consideration. 
The first report is by Mr. Robert T. Hill, of the U.S. 
Geological Survey, who, with other scientific investigators, 
accompanied a relief expedition in the U.S. steamer 
Dixie, which sailed from Brooklyn Dock on May 14. 
Notwithstanding the ill-advised introduction of mat- 
ters foreign to the object of a scientific expedition, the 
bulk of Mr. Hill’s report is well worth consideration. La 
Montagne Pelée, which has been introduced to our notice 
as the goddess of Hawaii and as the mountain which is 
bare or “naked,” is now referred to as the “ shovelfull,” 
an allusion possibly to its form. In May, 1901, we are 
told that a picnic party discovered on its summit a small 
fume rising at one corner of its crater lake. On April 23 
three distinct shocks were felt in St. Pierre, and every- 
body saw a great cloud of smoke rising from the summit 
crater. Two days later the lower Soufritre was in 
eruption, and from this date until May 5 the showers of 
ashes steadily increased. The succeeding sequence of 
events has already been published in these columns, whilst 
the observations of April 23 bring us nearer to the seismic 
disturbances of April 19, which, although they originated 
in Central America, there are strong reasons to suspect 
were the primary cause of disturbances in the Antillean 
fold. 
As the introduction to the account of the catastrophe 
Mr. Hill mentions his witnesses, and here we find for 
the first and last time in these reports the name of 
Captain Freeman. Certainly there is a reference to his 
vessel. According to engineer Evans, of the Rovazma, 
which was burned, the Aoddam was lifted on a wave 
“so that her anchor chain broke and she was enabled to 
escape,” which is not correct. Now at the time the great 
and fatal blast swept across St. Pierre and its roadstead, 
Captain Freeman was onthe deck of his vessel—then about 
three ships’ lengths from the shore—and for some time at 
least could see what occurred, whilst other witnesses 
whose testimony is referred to had sought refuge in en- 
gine-rooms or down below. Captain Freeman says that 
although there were many minor puffs of clouds from 
Pelée there was only ove great eruption, and this came 
from the side of the mountain. There were no detona- 
tions or loud reports, and from his point of view there 
was no sheet of flame accompanying or following the 
blast. The force of this, which came with the wind, was 
so great that he believes it was the cause of the s.s. 
Grapley turning turtle. There was no return blast, 
neither was there any absence of air. The difficulty in 
breathing was due to the quantity of fine ash with which 
the atmosphere was charged and the fetid gases with 
which it was mixed. 
