Rain making by Fires. 49 
Second Method—A second proposed method of obtaining rain 
is by means of great fires. With this proposal the name of a Penn- 
sylvania meteorologist, James P. Espy, is inseparably connected. 
In 1841 he published a “ Philosophy of Storms,” in which he en- 
larged on this idea previously propounded by him in occasional 
articles dating from 1838. The idea was not new, for Dobrizhoffer, 
a Jesuit missionary in South America, in his “ Account of the 
Abipones” (first published in 1784), says that these Indians 
produce rain by setting fire to the plains. Indeed the idea has 
been and is generally entertained and in the west has ecrystal- 
lized into the weather proverb, “A very large prairie fire will 
cause rain.” To show something of the character of testimony 
on which Espy relied we shall quote the story of George Mackay 
as given in a letter to Espy and printed by him in his * Fourth 
Meteorological Report” (pages 32-34). Mr Mackay says: 
In 1845 I was engaged in the public survey on the Atlantic coast of 
Florida. Some time in April (the time of the dry season there, which 
lasts up to June) I was running a township line between latitudes 26° 
and 27°, about five miles from the sea. The weather was oppressively 
warm that day. There was not air enough stirring to move an aspen 
leaf. We found our line must pass through a saw-grass pond, containing 
about five hundred acres. In ponds of this destription the green grass 
at the top shoots up from five to six feet in height, and when the region 
has not been for some years swept clear by fires the dead and dry growths 
of preceding seasons accumulate under the latest growth, and are often 
found there from two to four feet in depth. They are exceedingly in- 
flammable. When lighted in dry weather they burn with frightfal rapidity 
and violence. Whenever, in our explorations, we came upon a place of 
this description we could only pass our line by cutting away the lofty 
fresh grass and wading (or rather wallowing) through the mud and the 
under rubbish. On the day in question we determined, as it was so hot, 
that, to save ourselves trouble, we would burn our way through. I had 
then no thought of your theory. In order to prevent the flames from 
running over the woods, through which we were obliged to pass, we 
communicated them at once to both sides of the spot we desired to open, 
that they might converge and combine in its center and not scatter later- 
aly. Ina very few minutes an awful blaze swept over the entire sur- 
face which we had marked out for our purpose. We then crossed our 
line. Ere we had proceeded over forty chains a delightful breeze sprang 
up and cooled the atmosphere, and presently a refreshing shower sparkled 
in the bright rays of the sun. All this excited no further observation 
than that it had not rained there before for a long time. I myself did 
not observe any smoke’nor the formation of any cloud. 
Our work went on for some days without a repetition of our short cut 
at pioneering, some objection having been made when another burning 
