and extraordinary Electrical Phenomena. 337 



they appeared branched like the roots of a tree, and occasion- 

 ally with bright balls at the termination of all or some of the 

 branches- These coruscations of light commenced about 

 the south-west by south, and in all cases proceeded from west 

 to east, or from right to left, passing through a horizontal 

 space of from eight to fourteen degrees; and at times the 

 motion of the electric fluid appeared to be so slow, that its 

 progress could be easily observed. 



On three or four occasions, immediately after a ray or nar- 

 row line of light had passed through a horizontal space of ten 

 or twelve degrees, a luminous ball of considerable size, more 

 than twice the diameter of Venus when at her greatest bril- 

 liancy; suddenly appeared, and moved along in the same di- 

 rection as the ray of light had passed, with a progressive 

 motion from right to left, as from A to B in figs. 2 and 6, 

 and occupied at least the tenth of a second in its progress. 

 The other appearances were of a similar character to what are 

 given in the different figures, and their motion varied from a 

 horizontal to a vertical direction, as much as the position of 

 the figures represented in the sketches. 



Some of the coruscations of the electric fluid terminated 

 with a bright ball at the extremity of each branch, as in 

 fig. 5; whilst at other times bright balls were seen at only 

 two or three branches, as at fig. 7. In all cases these lumi- 

 nous appearances seemed to commence from a point where 

 the clouds were not dense or dark, and to proceed through 

 the air to their termination without entering or being obscured 

 by a cloud. 



These, or similar phenomena, were observed by Mr. Ran- 

 some and his son at Fairfield, near Buxton, in a westerly di- 

 rection, about eight o'clock ; but with this difference, that the 

 branches appeared to pass from left to right, whilst those I 

 witnessed passed from right to left; similar appearances were 

 seen by Mr. Chrimes to the north of the zenith, about a mile 

 beyond Wilmslow in Cheshire, who also observed that the 

 branches passed from left to right, beginning in the west and 

 moving towards the north-east ; and in some cases they were 

 so near the ground, that when they disappeared he thought 

 they were in contact with the hedges, 



Edward Brooke, Esq., of Marsden House, about five miles 

 to the east of Stockport, with some friends who were on a visit 

 to him, also observed these remarkable coruscations, which 

 he says proceeded from left to right, similar to those observed 

 near Buxton and Wilmslow ; and Colonel Stott, who was of 

 the party, and who had been several years resident in the 

 East Indies, declared he had very frequently noticed the dis- 



PhiL Mag, S. 3. Vol. 37, No. 251, Nov. 1850. Z 



