-Mr Charles. Tomlinson on Lighining Figures. 259 
tree, in striking contrast with the limpid vitrified inner sur- 
face. Mr Darwin, in describing similar tubes, fragments of 
which he found in South America, speaks of the measure or 
bore of the lightning being about an inch and a quarter. A 
magnificent fulgurite from Dresden may be examined in the 
British Museum. | 
Now, as the identity between frictional electricity and 
lightning is admitted, it must also, I think, be admitted that 
the discharge of a Leyden jar resembles that of a thunder- 
cloud; and if the former produces these tree-like figures, 
‘the latter does so also. Indeed, the ramifications of fulgurites 
prove such to be the case. We are apt to be misled in our 
ideas as to the form of a flash of lightning, by the stereo- 
typed zigzags by which artists agree to represent that ter- 
rible element. Jupiter’s thunderbolts may have as conven- 
tional a form as the French carpenter's scarf joint, which he 
‘names traits de Jupiter ; but Nature does her work with a far 
more fatal precision than these zigzags would imply. It is 
not often during a thunder-storm that we have an opportu- 
nity of seeing a terrestrial object struck by the thunder-bolt, 
but this I did see on one. occasion in Saxony. During a 
terrible storm I was watching the distant mountains of Bo- 
hemia, when a very black cloud was seen to descend, and to 
oe diaree itself upon:a hill in a nearly straight line of rippled 
‘dazzling light. This is what the sailors call ribbon or chain 
lightning, and is altogether different from shee¢ lightning, 
where reflected light makes up a large part of the phenomena. 
The ramifications which accompany or rather precede this dis- 
charge are not always visible, although they may sometimes 
-be seen ; but, as already noticed, they can be felt by a person 
im the vicinity of the stroke. And if felt, may they not im- 
-press themselves on the person? May not a small twig of a 
small branch of one of these ramifications of a stroke of light- 
ning print itself on the skin, as the discharge of a nee 
jar does with so much facility on glass ? 
M. Poey relates a case which is said to have occurred in 1812 
at the village of Combe Hay, four miles from Bath, of six sheep 
reposing in a meadow surrounded by woods being killed by 
lightning, and that, ‘* when the skins were taken from the ani- 
mals, a fac-simile of a portion of the surrounding scenery was 
