well controlled by accurate judgment, is just the point which we cannot determine; the markings on the leaf may have been only the natural zigzagging of the lightning.

animals had sought refuge. Although dred yards distant. Whether this was differing in details, these two accounts really an "exact representation," or the probably relate to the same occurrence; product of an excited imagination not the latter is perhaps more credible than the former, seeing that we can more readily believe an impression of a tree than of a landscape being thus produced. In 1846, at Graham's Town in South Africa, a flash of lightning struck the gable of a powder-mill. The building contained a store of twelve tons of gunpowder, in copper-bound barrels packed in a cluster about four feet from the wall. The lightning ran along the wall of the gable, beneath the floor, and out under the door-sill. The mark of the flash, zigzag in shape, and directed at an angle of about eighty degrees, was plainly visible on the whitewashed wall of the magazine, resembling in color the stain produced by the explosion of a very light train of pow-more popular character, contain a rich der; and a small hole or crack was made in the arch where it entered. There was no tree-mark or mystical mark here; the mark produced was evidently the zigzag path of the lightning itself.

In 1853, a little girl was standing at a window, near which stood a young mapletree; a flash of lightning struck either the girl or the tree, or both, and an image of the tree was found imprinted on her body. In another instance, a boy climbed a tree to steal a bird's nest; a lightning-flash struck the tree; the boy fell to the ground, and "on his breast the image of a tree, with the bird and nest on one of its branches, appeared very conspicuously." Scientific journals, as well as those of

store of incidents more or less similar to the above. Dr. Franklin stated in 1786, that, about twenty years previously, a man who was standing opposite a tree that had just been struck by lightning (or as he called Signor Orioli brought before a scien- it, by a thunderbolt), found on his breast tific congress at Naples four narratives an exact representation of that tree. M. relating to lightning-prints. In the first, Poey, who has treated this subject somelightning struck the foremast of the brig- what fully in the French scientific jourantine Santo Buon Servo" in the Bay of nals, mentions twenty-four cases of lightArriero; a sailor sitting under the mast ning-impressions on the bodies of men was struck dead, and on his back was and animals. Of those, eight were imfound an impression of a horseshoe, sim- pressions of trees or parts of trees; one ilar to one fixed at the masthead. In the of a bird, and one of a cow; four of second, a sailor, in a somewhat similar po- crosses; three of circles, or of impressition, was struck by a lightning-flash on sions of coins carried about the person; the left breast with an impression of the two of horseshoes; one of a nail; one of number 44; an almost exact representa- a metal comb; one of a number or nu tive of a number 44 that was at the ex-meral; one of the words of a sentence; tremity of one of the masts. In the third, a young man was found struck by lightning; he had on a girdle with some gold coins in it; and images of these were imprinted on his skin in the order they occupied in the girdle. In the fourth, an Italian lady of Lugano was sitting near a window during a thunderstorm, and was struck, though in a way scarcely conscious to herself at the time; a flower which happened to be in the path of the lightning was perfectly reproduced or printed on her leg, where it remained permanently.

and one of the back of an arm-chair.

There is no mention, so far as we are aware, of any imprinting on the bodies of the two hapless lovers mentioned by Gay; but a very little exercise of the imagination, aided by an element of credulity, would have sufficed to produce imaginary crosses, hearts, or trees. Those who know the story will remember that Pope and Gay were visiting at Stanton-Harcourt in 1718; that Gay described the_incident in one of his letters; and that Pope memorialized it in verse. Two rustic lovers, John Hewit and Sarah Drew, about a Among the thunderstorms described week before the day fixed for their wedas having occurred in the West Indies, ding, were at work with other harvesters one, in 1852, was rendered remarkable by in a field. A storm of thunder and lightthis phenomenon: a poplar-tree in a cof-ning came on in the afternoon, and the fee-plantation was struck by lightning, and on one of the large dry leaves was found imprinted an exact representation of some pine-trees that stood three or four hun

laborers hastened for shelter to the trees and hedges. Sarah Drew, frightened and dismayed, fell in a swoon on a heap of barley, and John Hewit raked up some

more barley, to shield her from the cruel Where metal is concerned, the producblast: while thus engaged, an intensely tion of images or facsimiles may result vivid flash appeared; the barley was seen more immediately from this rush of electo smoke, and there lay the two lovers, he tricity which constitutes the passage of with one arm around her neck, and the lightning. Wherever metal lies in the other arm over her, as if to screen her path, the flash takes that route in preferfrom the lightning. Both were dead: her ence to one through wood, brick, or stone; left eye was injured, and a black spot pro- but if the metal be discontinuous or interduced on her breast; while he was black- rupted, strange markings are often proened nearly all over. Pope's epitaph on duced on neighboring substances, similar the hapless couple is engraved on a stone in shape to the piece of metal just travin the parish church of Stanton-Harcourt. ersed. This may have been the case in In all probability, no one explanation the accident which befell a young man in will apply to these several cases. The Cuba in 1828; after a lightning-flash, he descriptions require to be examined close- found on his neck an imprint of a ly; and they meet with the most consist-horseshoe, similar to one nailed up on ent solution by separating them into the window of a house near him. If the groups. There is in the first place a love ornaments were of brass or some other of the marvellous which induces some per- metal, we might perhaps place in the sons to stretch the truth in order to make same category the narrative (one of those up a striking story. Not habitually un- given by Poey) of a lady, at her château truthful, they nevertheless yield to the of Benatonnière in La Vendée; she was temptation of so rounding off a narrative seated in her salon, in November 1830, as to cause hearers and by-standers to when a storm came on; lightning ap make exclamations of the "Good gra- peared, and on the back of her dress was cious!" kind. Other persons, repeating imprinted a facsimile of some ornaments what Jack told Dick that Sam had heard on the back of a chair against which she Bob say to Bill, do not reflect how much was leaning. a story gathers as it travels from mouth to mouth, until the final version bears but slight resemblance to the original. In another group of instances, a physiological agency of much importance has to be taken into account. Persons of nervous and excitable temperament, when under the influence of strong mental agitation, have been known to receive marks on some part of the body or limbs, corresponding in shape to the object which they were thinking of at the time; this is known to have occurred in other domains of human feeling; and there is nothing impossible in the occurrence of a similar phenomenon when the mind and the body are alike exposed to the action of a lightning-stroke. This was probably the case in regard to a French peasant-girl — one of the instances noticed by Poey. While tending a cow in a field, a storm came on; she took refuge under a tree; the cow fell dead from a stroke of lightning; the girl loosened her dress, that she might breathe more freely when nearly choked with agitation; and then she saw a picture of the cow imprinted on her breast. We give this story the credit of being truthfully told, and assign as the probable cause of the phenomenon a co-operation between a lightning-stroke and a vivid mental or nervous activity.

There is every reason to believe, lastly, that many of the markings are nothing more than results of the forked zigzag course of the lightning itself. Mr. Tomlinson, in his interesting volume "The Thunderstorm," has gone somewhat fully into this subject. He had had occasion to observe the manner in which the disruptive discharge of electricity, from an electrical machine, marks out its path over a badly conducting surface, such as glass, and was struck by the tree-like impression produced. He gives a wood-cut representation of a surface struck by the flash or spark of a small Leyden jar; and it is impossible to avoid seeing how strikingly the markings assume the form of a tree. The probability is pointed out, that, in cases where persons struck by lightning have had tree-like marks imprinted on their persons, they have been hastily considered to be real images of actual trees close at hand. It may, moreover, be observed that some persons, when struck by lightning, have received blue marks or bruises; these may put on a ramified appearance, "not only from the irregular mode in which electricity travels about in search of the line of least resistance, but also from the smaller vessels becoming congested, and consequently visible."

PERIODICITY OF HURRICANES.- Vice-Admiral Fleuriot de Langle has published in the two last numbers of the Revue Maritime et Coloniale a long discussion on the periodicity of cyclones in all parts of the world. The paper seems to have been first read at the Geographical Conference in Paris last autumn. M. de Langle seeks to connect these storms directly with astronomical phenomena, as will be seen from the conclusions which he gives in the following sentences:

We may deduce from the preceding investigations that when the latitude of the place, the declination of the sun or the moon resume the same values respectively, and these phenomena coincide with an eclipse on its approach to its apogee or perigee, there is danger of the sun or the moon, or with a phase of the moon, of a hurricane. If at these critical periods there is any unsteadiness in the winds, extra caution is required when the apogee or perigee occurs near the time of full

or new moon.

Of course, the statements are corroborated by a copious array of diagrams and tables, but after a careful study of the paper we fail to find that much has been added to our knowledge of the subject. There seems to be one radical defect in the reasoning, which influences all discussions of the relation between the moon and the weather. The hour of occurrence of a phenomenon at one station is taken, and the relation of that occurrence to the moon's age and position is investigated; but it is persistently ignored that the hurri cane moves over the earth's surface, so that if its occurrence at A coincides with the period of any other phenomenon, it must necessarily fail to coincide with it at B.

A REMARKABLE ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENON AT CEYLON. -The Rev. R. Abbay sent a communication on this subject to the Physical Society, May 27. In speaking of several of these phenomena he says that the most striking is witnessed from the summit of Adam's Peak, which is a mountain rising extremely abruptly from the low country to an elevation of seventy-two hundred feet above the sea. The phenomenon referred to is seen at sunrise, and consists apparently of an elongated shadow of the mountain, projecting westward to a distance of about seventy miles. As the sun rises higher it rapidly approaches the mountain, and appears at the same time to rise above the observer in the form of a gigantic pyramid of shadow. Distant objects may be seen through it, so that it is not really a shadow on the land, but a veil of darkness between the peak and the low country. It continues to rapidly approach and rise until it seems to fall back upon the observer, like a ladder which has been reared beyond the vertical, and the next instant it is gone. Mr. Abbay suggests the following explanation of the phenomenon:- The average temperature at night in the low country during the dry season is between 70° and 80° F., and that at the summit of the peak is 30° or 40° F.; consequently, the low strata of air are much the less dense, and an almost horizontal ray of light passing over the summit must be refracted upwards and suffer total internal reflection, as in an ordinary mirage. On this supposition the veil must become more and more vertical as the rays fall less horizontally, and this will continue until they reach the critical angle, when total internal reflection ceases, and it suddenly disappears. Its apparent tilting over on the spectator is probably an illusion, produced by the rapid approach and the IRON, on the authority of the Icelandic paper rising of the dark veil without any gradual Nordlingr, states that two enterprising Icedisappearance which can be watched and esti-landers, named Jow Thorkellsson and Sigindur mated. It will be evident that the illumina- Kraksson, have explored the volcanic region tion of the innumerable particles floating in of the Dygyur Jelden. They started on their the atmosphere causes the aerial shadow to hazardous expedition from the Bardadal on be visible by contrast. Another interesting Feb. 7, and in the course of their two days' phenomenon visible in the mountain districts exploration they succeeded, under great diffi admits of an equally simple explanation. At culties and dangers, in descending into the times broad beams apparently of bluish light, crater of the volcano Asya, where, at about may be seen extending from the zenith down-three thousand feet below the upper margin, wards, converging as they approach the horizon. The spaces between them have the ordinary illumination of the rest of the sky. If we suppose, as is frequently the case, that the lower strata of air are colder than the upper, the reflection spoken of in the case of Adam's Peak will be downwards instead of upwards. If several isolated masses of clouds partially obscure the sun, we may have several corresponding inverted veils of darkness, like blue rays in the sky, all apparently converging towards the same point below the horizon. This latter phenomenon is called by the natives "Buddha's rays." Popular Science Review.

they reached the bottom, and found themselves on the brink of a lake of seething hot water, which was apparently of great depth. Near the southern extremity of this lake the ground was broken up by fissures and pools, which prevented further progress in that direction, while the entire space resounded with the noise of loud subterranean thunder. North of the great crater the explorers found an opening about six hundred feet wide, which appeared to be of about equal depth, from which issued dense masses of sulphurous smoke, accompanied by loud and deafening sounds.

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Run these sad hours in the long stony street; We stand beside the cedar-tree,

Like the clear stream of the soul's pure delight. But when keen anguish pierces thus,