282 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



caught sight of it as it directly, but gently, approached along the road, upon 

 which, running to intercept it, and stumbling at every step over rough and 

 swampy ground, we managed to arrive within three yards of the glowing vision 

 as it slowly glided on at a level of about five feet from the earth. It presented 

 a globular form of bluish light, so intense that we could scarcely look at it, but 

 emitted no rays and cast no shadow#; and when about actually to grasp the in- 

 candescent nothingness, suddenly elongating into a pear-shape tapering to the 

 ground, it instantly vanished ; but on looking round up it rose again within fifty 

 yards, but this time we could not overtake it, as it bounded over a hedge, then 

 over trees, and finally disappeared in an impenetrable swamp. According to the 

 testimony of the soldiers, on another occasion, they beheld it rise from the swamp 

 and perch for some minutes on the top of the roof of a neighboring rancho with- 

 out walls, after which it pierced the roof and subsided in the ground beneath; 

 but in our case there was no deception, and moreover we noticed that it never 

 appeared on a windy night nor after rain." The author adds, in comment, "Al- 

 though the marsh-gas theory presented itself to my unwilling mind, it would have 

 to be strained considerably to be able to account for all the attendant circum- 

 stances." 



We will now attempt an examination of the various hypotheses proposed for 

 the explanation of the Wisp. 



Trickery may at once be set aside as out of the question. The movement 

 of the light is totally unlike that of a man carrying a lantern. It is at times mu' ' 

 swifter, overleaps objects which a man could not surmount, and plays often ov. 

 water, and at heights of from twenty to fifty feet in the air. Neither can we con 

 sider that it is produc ed by the reflection of a light thrown from some neighbor- 

 ing house. Fire-works are equally out of the question. Not to speak of the 

 slowly progressive movements of the Wisp sometimes observed, it is in the high- 

 est degree improbable that any trickster would convey a quantity of pyrotechnical 

 appliances into solitary moorlands, woods, and peat-bogs, in order to alarm some 

 stray traveller. 



Another hypothesis, advanced by certain very learned authors, such as Ray, 

 Willoughby, Kirby, and Spence, — ascribes the Wisp to luminous insects. Dr. 

 Dereham and Dr. Phipson combat this view on the ground that such insects 

 •'rise far higher in the air than does the Wisp, and present the appearance of 

 hundreds of little specks of hght." This argument seems scarcely valid; lumin- 

 ous insects are in all probability more numerous than is ordinarily supposed, and 

 vary considerably in their habits. Not all are high flyers, nor are they all grega- 

 rious. The apparent size of the hght may be considered a fatal obstacle, since 

 no known English insect emits a light of the size of "two fists." But a light 

 seen on a dark night by a superstitious and terrified ploughboy will very naturally 

 be described — and that without any conscious or intentional exaggeration — as much 

 larger than it really was. The circumstances that the Wisp is chiefly seen in calm 

 weather and during the summer season are in favor of this supposition. But we 

 have some positive testimony to advance. The Rev. Dr. Sutton, of Norwich, 



