THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 75 



somewhat "'rufflecr' appearance of the dea!d leaves on the 

 surface of the g-round near the big tree above alluded to, no 

 havoc seemed to have resulted, but as the said tree stood on 

 land close to the boundary of that which was in our posses- 

 sion, we had frequent occasion to pass that way, and in less 

 than a vear after the above incident a rift or lightning crevice 

 appeared from the top to the base of said tree, which soon 

 afterwards died; the electric discharge seemed not to have 

 been sufficiently energetic to force off the coarse bark of the 

 tree over the crack, just at the moment of striking, yet the 

 same had been separated from the sap wood (like a ribbon), 

 the length of the tree trunk, and the truth became manifest 

 that the young- women shelterers had had a narrow escape 

 irom instantaneous death. Another curious effect of light- 

 ning stroke on a forest tree may be here described. The time 

 of the year was the second week in May (about the 15th, I 

 think). Vegetation that year was quite backward, but a warm 

 wave seemed approaching, accompanied by hazy clouds and 

 drizzlinsr rain, when about the hour of three in the afternoon 

 a vivid flash of lightning, instantly followed by appalling- 

 thunder, caused the several inmates of our dwelling place 

 much sudden perturbation of mind, yet there was no second 

 flash or second thunder on that day, and we were unaware 

 until the following da}'' what damage had been done by the 

 explosion. About one hundred and thirty yards from our 

 dwelling the lightning had struck a large thrifty basswood 

 tree that had ! been left to grow in the middle of a clearing- 

 smashing the same literall}^ to atoms and scattering the timber 

 fragments in every direction around and among all the woody 

 debris. Only one piece was found sufflciently large for a 

 fence rail. On carefully examining the pieces and portions 

 of the upper trunk, the fact was made plain that the electric 

 bolt or ball of fire had struck the main stem, not at the summit, 

 but on the northeast side, and at a distance of seven or eight 

 feet from the highest part of the tree stem. The place of en- 

 trance was of a semi-circle form (the bow upwards) of about 

 two inches across the arc. The phenomenon demonstrated 



