336 Mr. P. Clare on some Thunder-storms 



The electrical state of the atmosphere must have been 

 greatly disturbed for a much wider district than has been de- 

 scribed ; but though we have no account of a thunder-storm 

 having occurred on the 16th of July between Bury and the 

 Derbyshire Hills, yet beyond them there was a severe storm ; 

 for Mr. Ransome, F.R.C.S., informs me he was travelling on 

 that day between Matlock and Buxton, and whilst on the 

 railway, before arriving at Rowsley, they experienced a violent 

 storm of thunder, lightning and rain, about five o'clock; but 

 on arriving at Buxton he did not hear that the storm had visited 

 that neighbourhood. 



In the country between Buxton and Holmes Chapel in 

 Cheshire, a distance of twenty -five miles from east to west, 

 and with some lofty hills to the west of Buxton, there was 

 not any severe storm of thunder and lightning on that day ; 

 but some sheet lightning and distant thunder were noticed 

 over a considerable extent of that country in the course of the 

 evening, with a little rain about sixteen or eighteen miles to 

 the west of Buxton. 



The storms herein described have no extraordinary features, 

 except their violence and the melancholy casualties that ac- 

 companied them ; but they exhibit a case of electrical disturb- 

 ance deserving notice in connexion with, or immediately pre- 

 ceding the very extraordinary appearances that occurred in 

 the course of the same evening. 



As the evening advanced, the sheet lightning became more 

 frequent and vivid at Manchester; and before nine o'clock 

 the clouds in the south-south-west and west had become very 

 dark, whilst those towards the south and south-east were not 

 near so dense, and were separated into masses, with open 

 spaces between them ; these spaces became very plainly visible 

 when the sheet lightning occurred, which about this period 

 was very frequent, and accompanied with distant thunder. 



From a quarter before until half-past nine some very extra- 

 ordinary appearances of lightning were observed, such as I 

 never before witnessed ; several flashes seeming to be almost 

 continuous, or repeated at such short intervals as were scarcely 

 appreciable, whilst at other times the light actually continued 

 for a considerable portion of a second. 



The bright coruscations of the electric fluid, which on or- 

 dinary occasions pass between one cloud and another, or be- 

 tween a cloud and the earth, in a tortuous or zigzag line, on 

 this occasion presented a great variety of forms and ramifi- 

 cations towards the south and south-south-west, similar to the 

 accompanying sketches, and at an elevation of from fourteen 

 to twenty degrees above the horizon (see Plate I.) ; sometimes 



