and certain Electrical Phenomena. 481 



a thunderstorm. The electrified cloud overhead throws a 

 corresponding, or even a larger surface of the earth beneath 

 into an opposite electrical state by its inductive action on the 

 intervening dielectric air ; and as the tension of the particles 

 of the latter increases by the continued induction of the cloud, 

 the highly charged system at length breaks down, the polar- 

 ized particles discharge into each other, and there is a flash of 

 lightning, which may strike the earth or a building in one or 

 more places. But before the main discharge takes place, 

 minor discharges, which act as feelers, determine the line of 

 least resistance along which the main discharge travels with a 

 velocity all but infinite ; so that it forms to the eye a rippled 

 band of brilliant light, and on reaching the earth disperses so 

 instantaneously that the eye cannot follow it. That the light- 

 ning should " generally " strike upon one selected spot "visible 

 from the house/'' and then be " seen zigzagging over its sur- 

 face," are statements that must be placed to the credit of the 

 inventive genius of the novelist. 



It has lately been remarked as an extraordinary circum- 

 stance that the same church should have been struck three 

 times during thirty or forty years. In all the authentic cases 

 of lightning striking the earth that have come under my 

 notice, I know of no case where the lightning of different 

 storms has struck the same spot; butithe lightning of the same 

 storm may strike the earth at or about the same spot many 

 times, as in the following case, namely that of H.M. Ship 

 1 Fisgard ' (furnished with Harris's conductors), while at 

 anchor in the Nisqually river in the Oregon territory, in 

 September 1846. From several intelligent reports made by 

 the officers on board, it appears that the ship was struck 

 by a bifurcated discharge of lightning, falling simultaneously 

 on the mainmast and on one of the lower masts with a very 

 loud explosion, but so efficient were the conductors that no 

 injury was done. The report was as if a broadside had been 

 fired from each side of the ship. It was remarked that several 

 of the pine-trees on the neighbouring land were struck and 

 set on fire, and the lightning repeatedly struck the ground in 

 all directions. Some of the men on shore stated that the ship 

 appeared to be coated with fire, and the whole atmosphere to 

 be in a general blaze, with terrific bursts of thunder. 



Authentic descriptions of African thunderstorms are some- 

 what similar in character. For example, that interesting 

 traveller, Burchell, gives several descriptions, of which the 

 following is one : — " The lightning began to flash, and the 

 most tremendous peals of thunder burst over our heads. In 

 an instant, without perhaps more than one minute's notice, a 



