NOTE ON A LIGHTNING DISCHABGE- 
25 
cut off and scatternd about. The bark was neither stripped off 
nor were thert- aay marks on it, and, beyoiKl the alight damage 
to some oi" the leaves a.iid twigs already mentioned, there was 
ncithinj^ to show that a powerftjl diseharj^e hail traversed them. 
Oil the gruund surronnding tho trees, however, were evidences 
fit' an unusual ehantcter. Around and lietweeo the bases of the 
trunks the earth mm torn up to a dc[>th of a foot or more, and 
from these exeavat ions, eight distinct sinuous branched trenches 
were cut in the ground. The two longest of these were some 
fifty-eight and fifty -four feet, the latter of which terminated in 
a piece of water. Two of the other trtrnt-hes also terminated in 
water; the others diminished in Bm^ as they extended froui the 
trees and gradually died out. Near the bases of the trees the 
furrows were from nine to twelve inches deep and about a foot 
wide. The roots in tJie earth were all cut throut^h, and the 
eartli, pieces of root and turf had evidently been thrown out 
with gre^t force and scattered all over the place. 
It is quite likely that the damage to the leaves and twigs of 
tin* trees may have Ireen (caused by this ejected earth, for in a 
case iu which a building in Taiping was struck some years back» 
part of the dischfirge passed lietween the bricks and the plaster 
of t!ie wall of one room and the plaster was thrown with such 
force that it did a large amount of damage to the contents of 
the n>om, which was then Uised as the Museum. Tiie velocity 
of some of the paj'titdes of plaster was so great that they pierced 
glass bottlea at a distance of twenty feet, making e!ean-eut holes 
in them. In that case it may be mentioned that the particles of 
l»}iister were throl^^l at right angles to tht^ line of discharge, iuid 
if the same thiug hapiM?ned in the present instance the earth 
would have been projected vertically upwards. 
In places, tuimela were cut in the earth for a length, in some 
cases, of eight or ten feet. At the three points where the dis- 
charge left the earth and eub^red the water, the earth was ejected 
as if the direction of the impeding force was from the trees 
towards the water, in other words as if the flaish came from the 
(doud to the earth. Two of the trenches leading to the water 
ended iu tunnels and one in an open furrow. The tunnels were 
round piisi^-like excavations about three inches in diameter, with 
their orifices on a level with the surface of the water. 
The aceomimnying roiigh sketch shows the furrows and 
their sinuous, branched character; the dotted lines hidiwite the 
tunnelH. As will k' seen, the place was nearly Hurritundcd by 
water, aud the mere fiwt of the trees being pidai will l»e sufficient 
to show that the spot was low-lying and damji — in fact, the 
natuiul water-level in the soil is only about eighteen inches 
l/eneath the surface. 
