produced on Mountains by Electricity. 127 



in company with Pictet and Jalabert*. The travellers were then 

 electrified to snch an extent that, on stretching out their hands, 

 they felt pricking sensations at the end of their fingers ; the 

 electricity escaped thence with a certain vibration ; soon sparks 

 could be got from the button of some gold lace which was round 

 the hat of one of the party, as well as from the iron point of a 

 mountain-staff. These effects were attributed to a great storm- 

 cloud which occupied the middle region of Mont Blanc, and 

 stretched itself, little by little, above the Brevent. At 80 feet 

 below the top of the mountain the electricity was no longer felt. 

 The storm growled around Mont Blanc, but on the Brevent 

 there fell but one slight rain-shower of short duration, and the 

 storm dispersed. 



It is easy, by this account, to see that the storm did not 

 reign over the Brevent at the moment of observation, since there 

 fell no rain ; but the electricity discharged itself in a continuous 

 current from the summit of the mountain. 



In July 1863, Mr. Spence Watson, visiting the Jungfrau with 

 some guides, was overtaken by a hurricane accompanied by hail 

 and snow. The staves began to sing ; the travellers felt sensa- 

 tions of heat f in different parts of their bodies, above all in the 

 head ; and their hair stood erect. A guide took off his hat, say- 

 ing that his head was on fire ; a veil kept itself stretched out in 

 the air. There escaped also electrical currents from the ends of 

 the travellers 5 fingers. The thunder-claps (in the distance, for 

 there was no flash visible) interrupted for an instant the pheno- 

 mena : at last they felt some shocks, and Mr. Watson had the 

 right arm paralyzed for some minutes ; he continued to feel 

 acute pain in the arm for many hours J. During this time the 

 snow fell with a hissing sound like hail§. But what is most 

 remarkable is that the snow gave out a sound, a crackling, like 

 that of a heavy shower of hail, evidently the analogue of that 

 the ground gave out on the Nevado de Toluca above described. 

 The phenomenon lasted twenty-five minutes. No other disagree- 

 able result followed than the burning of the faces of the travel- 

 lers as if they had been exposed to the sun on the snow. 



Mr. Forbes, in passing by the St. Theodule, heard the singing 

 of the staves ; and in July 1856 M. Alizier, of Geneva, witnessed 

 the same phenomenon near the summit of the Oldenhorn, under 

 an overcast sky, where a storm was brewing which broke out an 

 hour after, and which was accompanied with hail*fi. 



* Voyage dans les Alpes, vol. ii. 



t This sensation of heat appears to me to have been the same kind of 

 pain that I felt in the back. 



\ Alpine Journal, September 1863. 



§ Probably snow like rice, frozen sleet (gresil). 



11 See JJEcho des Alpes, 1865, No. 4, notice by M. C.-M. Briquet, 



