Climatic Observations. 251 
Connected with the subject of temperature and climate is the 
phenomenon of electricity, as exhibited in the aurora borealis or 
northern lights, and in the more familiar and more dreaded exhi- 
bition of thunder and lightning. The former are more frequent 
in the latter part of winter and beginning of spring, and tend 
much to beautify and adorn that cheerless season. The latter are 
most generally in their greatest violence during the dry and sultry 
months of summer, and are to most persons a source of great 
alarm; and certainly when the lightning is blazing in the murky 
heavens and the thunder is rolling its deafening peals along the 
midnight sky, it is a scene which few can calmly witness; and 
yet so far as danger is concerned, how harmless does it prove, 
to many of the casualties which sever us from existence? It 
is the hour and the tumult that spread their terror. We smile at 
the slow and insidious approach of disease. To annihilate time 
and distance, without reluctance we trust ourselves to every con- 
veyance; the ocean, the river, the railway have no terrors for us, 
and while driving with the rapidity of the storm-cloud we are as 
passive and happy as though we sat upon a couch of flowers. 
Our houses, however, in some measure protect us from the effects 
of the electric fluid, but still it would be very imprudent to ex- 
pose ourselves to a window or door to invite so unwelcome a vi- 
sitor, or come in contact or proximity with any metalic substan- 
ces which are appurtenant to our buildings. The water conduct- 
ors with which most houses are provided, Avhere no better con- 
ductor is erected, tend in some measure to carry off the electric 
fluid, and the gilding upon them offer numerous sharp points of 
attraction. A good lightning conductor, however, is a useful 
precaution against danger of this kind, and as the expense is not 
great it is a matter of surprise that we see so few of them. The 
average number of times that thunder is heard in this vicinity, 
founded upon the observations of four years, is as follows: 
January, times. May, 2 times. September, 3 times. 
February, June, 2 October, 1 
March, 1 July, 3 November, 
April, 1 August, 3 December, 
Making an average of 16 times that thunder is heard during the 
year. When we reflect too, how much of it is heard when the 
cloud is passing at a distance, it leaves the occurrence of danger- 
ous proximity but few times in the course of a year. But yet as 
a matter of prudence it is important to secure as far as possible, 
our property from chances of this kind. A farmer may have a 
valuable barn filled with the hard-earned produce of the season, 
which is to supply him with food and the means of obtaining ne- 
cessaries for his family, a little precaution and a small expense 
