12 EAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. [Oh. I. 



would seem least fitted to buffet with the waves, which at 

 some seasons lash themselves into irresistible fury. 



The straits of Malacca, with its fine prospects of Sumatra, 

 gave a taste of those tropical storms which have procured 

 for them the name of Straits' weather. Not that we were at 

 any time involved in the thunder cloud ; but on this and on 

 several other occasions, certain peculiarities of electrical 

 phenomena occurred, which may be appropriately referred 

 to here. In the first place, it has always struck me as a 

 singular phenomenon, that day after day thunderstorms have 

 apparently been bm-sting around us, in several places illumi- 

 nating the horizon, and yet we seemed to be exempted from 

 them. This was particularly the case in the Straits of 

 Malacca, and on the coast of China. Nor was it all of the 

 kind known as summer lightning, for I have delighted to 

 watch the vivid spark coursing through the air, or dashing 

 down upon the sea or land ; but although I have so often 

 watched lightning night after night successively, the sound 

 of thunder has been a rare occurrence. 



Again, on two occasions I have witnessed storms which 

 have apparently been of such severity that to be situated 

 beneath them must have seemed like being at the mouth of 

 hell. Once at Shanghai, in July, the sky was illuminated 

 with one incessant unintermitting glai-e, lasting several 

 hours, but no thunder was heai'd; and a simUai- circum- 

 stance took place in May off the south coast of Madagascar, 

 when a storm broke to the south of us, even exceeding this 

 in grandeur. From 7 to 11 p.m. a flickering glare, which 

 left the sky dark only for a second once in half an hour or 

 an hour, showed that a terrific elemental strife was going 

 on. The central point seemed elevated 10° or 15° above 

 the horizon, and as the nearer clouds cleared away I watched 



