41 
with aii Account of the Fire of' St Elmo. 
the ship was due to the very timeous and friendly interference 
of this aerial demigod ; and that no accident could possibly have 
happened to the sails, while the seamen were at prayers, as long 
as the light glowed stationary on the mast. Had the light, he 
continued, descended gradually from the mast-head to the deck, 
and from thence to the kelson, as he had often seen it, the event 
would have prognosticated a gale of wind or other disaster, and, 
according to the depth of the descent, so would be the nature of 
the evil to come. In the present instance, the lights gradually 
disappeared, like the snuff of a candle, and the weather conti- 
nued clear and fine for several subsequent days. 
This phenomenon, by many, is held to be fabulous, and is so 
alluded to by the greatest living poet of the day : 
Of witch, of mermaid, and of sprite, 
u Of Erick’s cap, and Elmo’s light 
but Falconer, both seaman and poet, writing from experience, 
says, 
“ High on the masts with pale and livid rays, 
w Amid the gloom portentous meteors blaze.” 
In order, however, to illustrate more fully the character of those 
very pious and devoted seamen, who attracted the favour of the 
saint on the present occasion, it must be understood, that this 
visitation of St Elmo took place immediately on the first burst 
of the Spanish Revolution, and that these very men had but re- 
cently figured as the bloody instigators and perpetrators, along 
with other patriots, in the massacre of several unfortunate 
Frenchmen, long resident in the city of Valencia for the peace- 
ful purposes of commerce. 
Art. V. — Account of Captain Scoreshy’s Magnetical Disco- 
veries, and of his Magnetimeter and Chronometrical Com- 
pass. 
Several interesting and valuable papers by Captain Scores- 
by, respecting magnetism, having appeared in the Transactions 
of our learned Societies *, we propose to give a condensed ac- 
* Edinburgh Transactions , vol, ix. p. 243? 353., and Philosophical Transac- 
tions , 1822, p. %4\. 
