NOTE ON A LIGHTNING DISCHAKGE IN 
TAIPING. 
Durm(* a thmncler-storm on tlie afternoon of Sunday » the 
5tli March, two trees in the gardt'n of Colonel Walker, 
at Taipinj^, were struct by Ughtning, Tlie oase ig wortliy i>f 
record, IIL8 there were seveml jwints of eotisiderable intoroat 
eomiected with it, Tlie trees whicli wtre struck are both wliat 
the Malays call puki " (akhnia Hchohrifi), They are not Jarf^o 
ones, and there are several considerably taller efose by. Tli+^ 
are situated in a small hollow aurrouuded on three sides hy liigh 
^'roimd, the slopes of which are dotted over \viih trees, while un 
the top of the rising ground are three buildings furnished wit Ii 
hghtninj^ couductorii. The buildings are Colonel Walkers 
hoLine, the magazine on the fort, and the Secretarr to Guveru- 
meiit's f|uarters. The two pulai trees are therefore in, no way 
cwnspieuoug objects, and it i» hard to understand why they 
ehould have been struck when the visible aspects of the situa- 
tion are alone taken into account; but the stjite of the atmois- 
phere may have l>een ^ch that a ]mth of lower electrical 
resietance was oix^ned to the discharge through these trees than 
through the higher ones close by. 
Tennyscm aptly describes this condition in the lines — 
" The ragged rims of thunder brooding low, 
With shadow-strcfiks of rain." 
These shadow- streaks, which are such a noticeable feature 
of tropical rain-storms^ offer an easy expknation of the other- 
wise unaccountable occasional selection by bghtning of incou- 
spicnoua objects. They often cover, with their ktees, quite a 
small areA of ground, and their density is sueh that they must 
offer very much less resistance to the |)assage of an electric 
current tlian the surround in g air. 
The trees themselves were not injured, except that the top 
shoot of one was broken and that some twigs and leaves were 
