THUNDERSTORMS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 213, 30 October 1880, Page 4

THUNDERSTORMS.

(#ew York Herald ) > Mountainous regions, on the whole, are the most frequent .theatres of these disturbances, and tbe Pyrenees are peculiarly liable to be swept by storms which have a tolerably regular duration of from three to four days. The thunderstorm, like the windstorm, is an effort of nature to restore equilibrium, to rehabilitate a perturbed order. Evaporation is at wotk upon the broad spaces of the ocean, and in a lesser degree upon the land ; the clouds move above us surcharged with a mysterious

burden of electricity fhot is continually straggling to their surfaoes. The j tension is at last relieved, the stratum j of air between two masses of cloud, or between the earth and clouds in opposite electrical statos, is charged and discharged rb the fiery tongue of the lightning flashes out. These flashes, Reneraliy of ohining white, ofteu yellow, red, and blue, and of violet tinge when eraittedia the rarefied regions of the atmosphere, are seldom less than several miles in length; nod some were observed in Abyssinia that must have been from 50 to 100 miles long. The urea of a thunderstorm has beeu known to be as much as 500 miles long by 60 in breadth, Tho electric fluid usually assumes one of the three forms— forked \ or sigzag lightning, sheet Hghtoiug (the reflection of the forked kind upon \ olouf's or Bean-lvanßpßVcut vapour), bdo \ globular lightning, erroneously supposod to be of a solid nature. Iv spile of tbo common persistence of these forms, bucli ecceutrio varieties have been noticed as a flish followed by a brilliant train of sparks, find a spherical mass, drawn, bb it were, by blnd.es of flame. Lightning ia as destructive to persou and to property oa it is capricious in ita operations and variable iv tbo effects it produces. From 1835 to 1850 no lees than 1308 persona were killed by lightning in France, and the number of persona loeing their lives by this means in England is said to average between 20 and 30 yearly. Man is not so £often Btruck ,by lightning bb tbe lower animals; as many as 2000 sheep hove perished at a single discharge. Horses are sometimes killed, whilst their riders escape ; a pig snuffing at a fireball that came floating near him was annihilated,, tbe. bystanders ramaiong unhurt. The effects of lightning upon the unfortunate people, it strikes are sometimes horribly curious, There ia a story from a French source, to be taken, perhaps, with a grain of salt, of a woman who, upon being touched with a whip for standing in the way, fell to a heap of fine ashes. She had, of course, been struck by lightning some Tew minutes before. Of miraculous escapes there in an ample record, from the old storyof the man whose watch was fused in his pocket to the unsiaged ifur.vi^or' whose- hat-brim" was sheared off by lightning at' Saford' during the present month. Of the English abbeys and cathedrals there is scarcely one that has not been burnt down or partially destroyed by this agenoy, and several have been ruined more than once. The catastrophe at; Brescia/in; 1769 ia perhaps the most terrible that has ever been caused. by lightning. The tower of ,St. Nazaire .was struck and 200,000" founds of gunpowder in the vaults below belonging to jbe. Venetian Republic was exploded, a sixth part cf the city was laid in ruins, and 3000 A the inhabitants were killed. From 1790 to 1840, 280 ehips'ofthe Royal •Navyfwere damaged by lightning; more than 30 being set on fire; in these accidents more than 103 seamen were killed. and 250 dapgerously hurt..Striking trees, the lightning will sometimes, by causing a violent expansion of their interior moisture, tear them to ribands; fulling upon deep sand,- it produces the fulgurite, a sort of pipe, often branched, with vitrified walls. Most of us are j anxious in time of storm to known the ! place of greatest eafety. Out of doors one should choose an open space, and b I position 16 to 40 feet from a tall tree is highly approved. The resinous or campborona trees are -rarely struck by lightning, and tbe immunity popularly attributed to tbe ash is really enjoyed jbylthej beech, birch, and maple. . In an apartment ..the place of safety is in the centre of the room, preferably on <a hammock, or upon a chair that has isome conducting substance, between it and the door. Some of the deeper Alpine valleys, with crag and pinnacle towering above them, and serving as so many lightning conductors, have from time immemorial escaped the fatal visitations of the lightning, and there, orin the highest mi eerenest regions of the atmosphere, far above the MaUerhorua, and Dwalagiris, must a complete degree of safety be sought.