TWO MEN STRUCK DEAD BY LIGHTNING, IN VICTORIA.

Kumara Times, Issue 663, 12 November 1878, Page 4

TWO MEN STRUCK DEAD BY LIGHTNING, IN VICTORIA.

Fuller particulars are to hand of the sad Natality which ©ccured at the station of Mr W. J. Clarke, Kalkallo, near Donnybrook, on the 28th ult.. It appears that •at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon a "violent thunderstorm broke over a paddock "in which a steam plough was at work. The overseer, Mr John Mackensie Cheyne, and his assistant, Mr Jean Henri Antoine Marie Petitjean, mounted their horses, >*and were in the act of riding from the field apparently to seek shelter, when they were struck by a flash of lightning, causing instantaneous death. The horse which Mr Cheyne was riding was also killed upon the spot, but strange to say the animal ridden by Mr Petitjean sustained no injury whatever, * although the horses were walking side by side. On an external examination of the bodies, it was found that Mr Peititjean was black in the face, while the clothes worn by Mr Cheyne were tom in shreads by the lightning. Mr Cheyne, who was 25 years of age, had been in the employment of Mr W. J. Clarke, in the ♦capacity of overseer, for several years past, but Mr Petitjean, who was 21 years of age,-had only arrived in the Colony about two years since as a cadet.