656 
IGNIS FATUUS. 
were not eclipsed. In that neighbourhood there are many 
large kauri pines, and it is not improbable that the decom- 
posed remains of those highly resinous trees had something 
to do with this phenomenon. 
The Fens in the Isle of Ely and Lincolnshire were formerly 
as notorious for their unwholesome fogs and miasma, as for 
the frequent appearance of the Ignis Fatuus, which might be 
seen in all directions nearly every dark night ; of late years, 
it has been more rarely observed, and during the time I held 
a curacy in the heart of the Fens,* a period of more than five 
years, I only noticed it twice. 
On one of those occasions, a dark rainy night, in return- 
ing home from my distant church in the Fens, I had an 
opportunity of seeing this singular light ; at first, I took it 
for a man with a lantern, and being anxious to share the 
benefit of it, as well as gain a companion, I quickened my 
steps to get up with him, walking through thick and thin — 
for the road was deep in mud, but I seemed to get no nearer, 
the light still kept at the same distance from me, I there- 
fore stood still, and listened whether I could hear any 
footsteps, and was then surprised to see the light dancing 
about, from one side of the road to the other, sometimes 
sinking to the level of the earth, and then rising to a 
height of eight or ten feet ; it was now evident that it 
was the Ignis Fatuus ; anxious to examine it more closely, 
I stood still, when the light approached, gradually increas- 
ing in size, appearing and disappearing every instant ; 
its quivering and vibratory motion most resembled that 
of a sheet of gold leaf ; in a little time it divided itself into 
two parts, one remaining on one side of the road, which 
was bordered with broad ditches, the other on the opposite 
side, leaving a thin streak of light between, and then uniting 
again in a moment, flowing together like oil ; at last, it 
approached so near as to appear almost equal in size to the 
full moon, having a globular form, and emitting a light 
sufficient to render a gate which stood near perfectly visi- 
ble ; it advanced so rapidly, that it was rather startling, 
* Coveney and Manea, in the Isle of Ely, then a complete Missionary post. 
