394 



Meteorology. 



above the level of the sea — the other hill being about 110 feet higher : 

 the wind which -vvas strong and came in sudden gusts — as well as the 

 clouds— blew from theN.E.,and thunder and lightning were continuous 

 during the evening. " At 10 minutes past 10 p. m." Colonel Monteith 

 states, " a sharp clap of thunder, something like the report of a gun, 

 took place close to the window, and was succeeded at the same moment 

 by a second report m the roomy which was instantly filled with dust;'* 

 this second report Colonel Monteith remarks " I thought at first pro- 

 ceeded from a loaded musket having been fired by the electric fluid" — 

 there was a musket in the adjoining verandah — " at the same time I 

 felt a strong shock over the fore part of the feet, and numbness, ex- 

 tending to the knees, which immediately went off." Colonel Mon- 

 teith's impression was, that the electric fluid had entered the room 

 through the Venetians in the eastern verandah, and passing through the 

 room, had made its exit through the Venetians on the western side of 

 the bungalow; but a careful inspection shewed, that it had struck the 

 roof of the bungalow, which is sloping, at about ten feet below the 

 apex, where it broke two or three tiles and proceeded through to the 

 rafters; here refusing the conducting powers of the rafters, it descend- 

 ed nearly perpendicularly through a space of five feef, to a vertical iron 

 bolt, through which it passed quietly, until arriving at the wood work 

 of the door, which it shivered to pieces, and eventually, after passing 

 through the rattan mat, it left a blackened impression of its force upon 

 the chunam. Chunam being a very imperfect conductor of electricity, 

 and hempen twine being a very good one, I should have expected that 

 the twine-lacing of the rattan mats (which covered the whole of the 

 floor of the bungalow), would have been selected by the electric fluid 

 to convey its superabundant excess to the earth, but the case was other- 

 wise; for, although twenty or thirty pieces of twine must have been 

 all but in contact with the electric fluid, still it was evident that not 

 one of these had enacted the part of a conductor. 



The first impression on the floor, was exhibited by a dark patch 

 nearly circular, and about an inch in diameter; from hence it separated 

 into three main channels, each of which after pursuing a meandering 

 course, and throwing off" two or three branches, eventually stopped short 

 as exhibited in the drawing. I noticed as curious in the terminations 

 of these streams, that four out of the seven exhibited at their ter- 

 mination a circular spot, somewhat larger than the diameter of the 

 stream itself; two others were dissipated without any mark, and that 

 which passed under Colonel Monteith's feet (apparently the weakest of 

 the whole) terminated in a broad splash. 



