230 
NATURE NOTES 
The above circumstance came to my memory yesterday when 
I was driving in the New Forest and saw a large beech tree that 
had quite lately proved a conductor to earth for the electricity in 
the clouds above it. 
On another occasion, in 1892 or 1893, when I was living at 
Cassel, in Germany, I saw the lightning strike straight down on 
the Kratzenberg, a wooded hill laid out as a pleasure ground, 
and about a quarter of a mile from my house. I at first thought 
that the ornamental summer-house had been hit, but a short 
search revealed the victim — a tall pine surrounded by others, 
whose bark had been rent from top to bottom, and some of the 
descending branches damaged and slightly broken at the ends 
by a portion of the electric current being diverted along them. 
This tree never looked quite well during the remainder of my 
stay in its neighbourhood, and no doubt the Germans, who are 
such excellent foresters, have long ere this removed it. 
Inasmuch as the living body of an animal is a better con- 
ductor of electricity than that of a tree, I imagine that if a man 
had been leaning against one of the above-named trees he would 
certainly have been killed. Had he been underneath one of 
them he would have been in very great danger. Had he been 
not far from the pine tree, but well beyond the branches, he 
might have had a shock but have escaped with his life ; but had 
he been touching one of its branches or been close to them he 
would have caused a sufficient portion of the electric fluid to be 
drawn towards him to have perhaps a fatal result. 
Had there been squirrels or birds in the pine some might 
have escaped, but many of the insects located in the bark and 
elsewhere, I think, would have been destroyed. It did not occur 
to me at the time to pursue my investigations so as to determine 
this point. 
Tuckton, Christchurch, Hants., Giles A. Daubeny. 
October 2, 1898. 
GEOLOGY FOR CYCLISTS. 
IlYCLISTS have undoubtedly great opportunities for 
studying field geology ; but to reap the full advantage 
of these opportunities some preliminary acquaintance 
with the science, such as can be obtained from Sir 
Archibald Geikie’s “ Class-book,” or some other of the many 
excellent elementary works now published, is necessary. A 
geological map of the whole of England, such as the late Sir 
Andrew Ramsay’s, or the handy little geological atlas published 
by Reynolds, is indispensable, and I should advise anyone 
wishing to become a geologist to join the Geologists’ Association, 
a body which has long been famous for its admirably conducted 
excursions, some of which are now specially planned for cyclists. 
England presents a remarkably complete series of stratified 
