u 



of Plioca Vldiluut or the seal of our shores, near Marblehead, 

 was made to the Institute. 



Mr. Augustus Fowler, who liad been engaged, for some years, 

 in observino; and fisjurin"; our native birds, "with their nests 

 and eggs, exhibited his drawings to the audience. 



The following letter, from the Rev. Gardner B. Perry, of Grove- 

 land, on being read, was referred to a committee of Messrs. 

 Jacob Batchelder, Samuel P. Fowler, Benj. F. Mudge, Richard 

 H. Wheatland, and Lincoln R. Stone, to investigate the sub- 

 ject and report at some future meeting. 



Gioveland^ August 15ih, 1856. 



Henry Wheatland, M D., Secretary Essex Institute : 



Dear Sir — I am confident you will excuse me, when I 

 ask your attention to a subject which cannot be otherwise than 

 interesting to you. I refer to the unusual manifestations of 

 the Electrical Fluid, which have been witnessed in this country, 

 and as I suppose generally through New-England. These 

 manifestations, I think, have been more frequent and penetra- 

 ting, of larger volumes, of greater force, and more effective, 

 when its powers have been concentrative on any particular object 

 than usual, and at the same time its scintillation, oblique shafts, 

 have been more numerous and diversified in shape, and motion, 

 than is common in this region of country, while the general 

 color of the elements, has been deeper, and more vivid. These 

 facts I regard as important and interesting — interesting and 

 important, whether Ave look at them in their physical cause or 

 effects in the animal feelings and changes they produce, or in 

 the mental anxieties which they spread widely over the com- 

 munity, wdien this wonderful element, by its unfoldings, doth 

 shake terribly the earth. 



Now, dear sir, feeling confident that these facts can hardly 

 have escaped the notice of any, and when noticed must be re- 

 garded as of much interest, you will permit me to ask if there 

 are not many circumstances connected with them which deserve 

 the special attention of those who wish to understand the laws of 

 the material world, so as to secure the benefit, which when prop- 

 erly understood and regarded, they bestow, and show the evils, 

 which a neglect of them must and will follow ; and whether an 

 inquiry into them, may not justly claim the attention of the 

 Institute. A great number of enquiries will naturally crowd 

 themselves upon the mind of those who may turn their atten- 



