Miscellanies. 39S 



Mr. Lea is in error in supposing that his shell and the Cerithium 

 Sayii, Menke, (C. reticulatum, Totten,) among which it was found, are 

 from Boston. Although in Col. Totten's description of the latter spe- 

 cies, Boston harbor is mentioned as its habitat, it has not probably been 

 found north of or within Cape Cod, its extreme limit being Province- 

 town, where it was found by Dr. Gould. The shells in question were 

 obtained in Dartmouth, Mass., where they were clinging to the Zostera 

 marina below low-water mark. Very respectfully, 



C. B. Adams. 

 Middlebury, Vt., Feb. 15, 1842. 



10. Notice of some facts connected loith a stroke of lightning, in a 

 letter from Rev. James H. Linsley,* dated Stratford, Conn., Sept. 9, 

 1841. 



Prof. SiLLiMAN — Dear Sir : Early in June, 1821, four men, who 

 had been engaged in fishing, were cleaning shad upon a plank ten or 

 twelve feet in length, one end of which was resting upon the edge of a 

 stump, and the other upon an empty flour barrel, the latter being to- 

 wards the river. A large pile of the offals of shad was lying around 

 the stump ; a steel pointed pitchfork was standing by the plank, which, 

 as well as the prongs of the pitchfork, was smeared with the fish-oil. 

 A heavy shower had commenced, and the men took shelter in a shed 

 about twenty five or thirty five feet off, when the lightning struck the 

 stump, splitting it to pieces, until it came down to the fishes' entrails 

 and heads that were piled around it. Below them it did not affect the 

 stump or the ground, nor injure the plank, or the pitchfork by it on the 

 barrel ; but took the ground at the lower end of the barrel, and thence 

 ploughed a furrow until it came to a rock about five feet in length or 

 two or three feet horizontal thickness, weighing several tons, through 

 which it passed, leaving one side broken in several pieces, and the 

 other side unbroken, with a square face, as if sawed through. The 

 rock is thinly laminated, but. the lightning did not separate the lamina ; 

 it cut across nearly at right angles, i. e. varying only twelve degrees, 

 the laminse being nearly perpendicular to the horizon. From the rock, 

 the lightning passed to the water and disappeared. In a few moments, 

 however, many dead fishes of various species rose upon the surface 

 of the river ; they appeared to come up " as they do when the ice over 

 them in winter is struck by an axe." The effect upon the men in the 

 shed was singular : one was seen from the dwelling house (about five 

 rods distant) to stoop down as though picking up something with both 



* The facts were communicated to Mr. Linsley by Mr. S. Crovvfut, the owner 

 of the place where the event occurred. 

 Vol. xLii, No. 2.— Jan.-March, 1842. 50 



