Vol. 52.] KICKEL-BEARTNG SERPENTINE. 457 



We proceed next to describe the effect of the lightning. Of the 

 specimens before us the first was collected and given to the Museum 

 at University College by Mr. Eccles. It is a rude slab measuring 

 about 9.i X 5 1 x 1 5 inches, from which a large flake (also brought) has 

 been split off, exposing a sinuous clear-drilled tube (in outline not 

 unlike some photographs of a lightning-flash), measuring about 

 4 inches from end to end and terminated by outer surfaces of the 

 fragments. It throws off a short curved side-branch, and its 

 diameter is rather variable, but generally not more than -J^ inch. 

 The tube is lined with a film, hardly so thick as stout note-paper, 

 which exhibits a minutely pitted surface. This film in the inner 

 part of the tube is brown in colour, but it becomes black on or near 

 the outer surfaces. Underneath it the walls of the tube appear to 

 be quite smooth. Apertures or portions of two or three similar 

 tubes occur on the other side of the slab. 



The next specimen (represented by the second analysis, p. 455) 

 is rudely quadrangular, measuring about 4 x 3 x 1| inches. On 

 both sides short tubes are seen here and there, measuring about 

 y 1 ^- inch in diameter or sometimes rather less, which branch and 

 occasionally enter the rock without, however, piercing through it. 

 Similar wavy aud branching tubes are exposed on one of the sides, 

 which is fractured. The minor features of these tubes, so far as can 

 be seen, are identical with the last described. 



A third specimen (represented by the first analysis, p. 454) is 

 a rudely lozenge-shaped flake, measuring about 5| x 3^ X 1| inches. 

 On the more weathered surface we find a shallow hollow, roughly 

 resembling an ear in shape, and about | inch long, which leads to a 

 tube slightly oval in section and about ± inch in diameter. This 

 passes obliquely through the fragment and is exposed on the other — 

 apparently more recently broken — surface, where it continues as a 

 branching channel for rather more than an inch and can be traced 

 interruptedly for about | inch farther. On one side of this, and 

 probably connected with it, traces are found of another branching 

 tube ; the tube is lined as before with a film of a blackish glassy 

 material, as will be described below ; and patches of it can be seen 

 on the first-named surface forming more or less branching patterns, 

 one group being probably connected with the mouth of the tube. 



The last specimen (represented by the third analysis, p. 456) is 

 apparently a loose fragment, about 5| inches in length and rudely 

 triangular in a cross section, the longest side being about 2 inches, 

 with weathered fawn-coloured surfaces. Neither tubes nor channels 

 can be detected, but there are (mostly on one side) several filmy 

 patches of the black 4 pitted ' glassy material, irregular in outline, 

 two of them extending continuously for a full inch. 



These fulgurites, it will be seen, bear a general resemblance to 

 those collected by Mr. Eccles from the summit of Monte Viso and 

 excellently described by Mr. F. Kutley, 1 except that in our specimens 



1 Quart. Journ. G-eol. Soc. vol. ilv. (1889) p. 60. See also, for the general 

 aspect of the tubes, the illustration on pi. iii., where, however, the channels 

 ramify rather more than in the cases described above. 



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