from the same cause, among ten times the population, in any part of Europe. One fatal case, accompanied with very peculiar circumstances, is mentioned by Burnaby. A person in Virginia, standing at his door during a thunder gust, was killed; an intermediate tree, at some distance, was struck at the same time; and when the corpse was examined, it was found that the tree was delineated upon it in miniature; the surrounding part of the body being livid, but that which was covered by the tree, of its natural colour. He gives this as a well known and well attested fact, but adds, that he does not pledge himself for the truth of it, because it appears so improbable and unphilosophical. Our knowledge in many branches of natural history would be much less imperfect than it is, if many facts had not been suppressed either from a fear (like this) lest they should be thought incredible, or from that unreasonable incredulity which will not, even upon the strongest testimony, give credence to any thing that it cannot explain.

Where the materials for a thunder-storm are generated in such abundance, the actual process of the manufacture (if so it may be called) has been traced, in two instances, which Dr. Dwight relates. A small cloud of mist was observed to rise from the surface of a lake among the Green Mountains, in the county of Litchfield, and settle upon the summit of a neighbouring eminence; a second followed, and a third, and then a numerous series of such exhalations, all proceeding directly to the hill, till its summit was covered with a body of vapours. The mass soon began to move through the atmosphere in a south-west direction; and it had not been long in motion, before a flash of lightning burst from it, followed by a peal of thunder. It enlarged rapidly in its progress,' to the size of a wide-spread thunder-cloud, and thundered and lightened till it had left the horizon.' The other instance was noticed on Lake Champlain. A copious exhalation rose from that lake, in the form of long curved lines or threads; these rapidly directed their course to a small cloud which hung over Onion river, at the distance of two or three miles. In this cloud they all centered and terminated their motions, appearing in some measure like meridians in the stereographic projection of a sphere. After a little while, the cloud began to move up the river with great velocity, discharging frequent flashes of lightning, and loud peals of thunder, in its passage. At no great distance the wind which carried it became a violent tornado, and spread desolation through the valley of this river.'

One most extraordinary statement we shall give at length. 'Friday morning, October 18th, we rode to the south end of the lake, accompanied by Mr. Whittlesey, to examine a rock, of which a singular,

singular, not to say an incredible, opinion prevails in the vicinity. Our road, for near half a mile, lay on a natural causeway, about thirty feet in breadth, which separated the lake in two parts, and was formed of earth, probably washed up by its waves. The rock, which was the particular object of our curiosity, is said, by inhabitants long settled here, to have moved a considerable distance from the spot where it anciently stood, towards the south-western shore. You will not suppose we considered this story as founded either in truth or good sense. However, having long believed it to be prudent, and made it a regular practice, whenever it was convenient, to examine the foundation of reports credited by sober men, I determined to investigate this, as I saw that it was firmly believed by several discreet persons. One particularly, a man of unquestioned reputation, and long resident near the spot, declared, that, about forty years since, the top of this rock, at the ordinary height of the water, was at least two feet below its surface, and fifteen or twenty rods farther from the causeway than when we saw it. The shore has unquestionably remained as it then was; for the trees and stumps standing on the causeway are older than any man now living, and the space between them and the lake is very narrow, scarcely extending fifteen feet from the trees.

The top of the rock is now at least two feet above the water. This height it is declared to have gained imperceptibly, year by year, for many years, in consequence of its advancing towards the shore, and standing continually in water more and more shallow. The water is evidently of the same depth now as formerly, as is proved by the appearance of the shore.

'When we came up to the rock, which was standing where the water was scarcely knee-deep, we found a channel behind it, towards the deeper water, formed in the earth, about fifteen rods in length. It was serpentine in its form, and was sunk from two to three feet below the common level of the bottom on its borders. In the front of the rock the earth was pushed up in a heap, so as to rise above the water, declining, however, at the distance of a few inches, obliquely and pretty rapidly. Not far from this rock we saw another, much less, attended by the same phenomena, except that they were diminished in proportion to its size. The whole appearance of each was just as one would expect to find, if both had actually removed from their original places towards the shore, throughout the length of their respective channels. How these channels were formed, or by what cause the earth was heaped up in front of these rocks, I must leave to the divination of others. The facts I have stated, as I believe, exactly.

Several years since this account was first written, I met with the following paragraph in the collections of the Massachusetts' Historical Society, vol. iii. p. 240:-" There is a curiosity to be seen in the Long pond in Bridgton. On the easterly side of the pond, about midway, is a cove, which extends about one hundred rods farther east than the general course of the shore; the bottom is clay, and the water so shoal, that a man may wade fifty rods into the pond. On the bottom of this cove are stones of various sizes, which, it is evident from visible circum

stances,

stances, have an annual motion towards the shore. The proof of this is the mark or track left behind them, and the bodies of clay driven up before them. Some of these are, perhaps, two or three tons weight, and have left a track several rods behind them, having at least a common cart load of clay before them. These stones are many of them covered with water at all seasons of the year. The shore of this cove is lined with these stones three feet deep, which, it would seem, have crawled out of the water. This may afford matter of speculation to the natural philosopher."

Until I saw this paragraph, I did not imagine that a story, such as I received at Salisbury, would ever be repeated.'-vol. iii. p. 245.

Dr. Dwight has not stated the size of the rock which is said to possess this extraordinary power of locomotion. If he had, it is possible that a story, which in another of his journals he relates of the Oneidas, might explain the apparent prodigy. Those Indians regard a large stone with religious reverence, and speak of it as their god, because it has followed them in their various removals, slowly indeed, but to a considerable distance. The truth is, a stout young man resolved to amuse himself with the credulity of his tribesmen, and therefore whenever hẹ past that way, took up the stone, which was too large to be removed by a man of ordinary strength, and carried it some distance westward. In this manner the stone advancing by little and little, made in à few years a considerable progress, and was verily believed to have moved this distance spontaneously. The young fellow told the story to an American gentleman, and laughed heartily at the cre dulity of his countrymen." But had the rock which Dr. Dwight saw, been of dimensions which would render such a trick like this possible, he would surely have suspected it; it is highly improbable that the same strange and troublesome deception should be attempted in two places; and in the statement quoted from the Massachusetts' Transactions, some of the stones are said to be of two or three tons weight. That statement appears to have been reprinted from a Portland newspaper, the place where the phenomenon is said to exist being only eighteen miles from Portland. Any thing, therefore, which might so easily be contradicted or disproved, would hardly have been published unless it had been commonly believed. But if science and literature are making such progress in this part of the United States as some suppose, the matter will doubtless be investigated as it deserves, and the truth or falsehood ascertained of statements apparently so impossible..

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There is a fact related in these volumes, which seems to throw some light upon the nature of those hitherto unexplained explo sions, that are heard in mountainous countries. Such an explosion, about forty years ago, was heard by the inhabitants of Kins

VOL. XXX. NO. LIX.

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dale township, in New England, from West River Mountain, on the Connecticut. Upon repairing to the place, they discovered that a metallic substance had been forced from the heart of the mountain, the hole which it had made ling about six inches in diameter. A few trees which stood near were almost covered with the substance which had been ejected, and which consisted chiefly of melted and calcined iron ore, strongly resembling the scoria of a blacksmith's forge. The same substance was found upon the rocks and the face of the hill in several places, having evidently been propelled in a liquid or semi-liquid state. Is it not probable, that some of those phenomena which, when they are displayed upon a large scale, are generally noticed because they are severely felt, occur more frequently, in a smaller degree, than has hitherto been suspected? for example, such volcanic explosions as the instances here adduced, and slighter and less extended movements of the earth than are denominated earthquakes? Since it has been placed beyond a doubt, that stones fall from the sky, how many facts of the kind have been ascertained and recorded! The wonders which are related by the old chro niclers and annalists of every country might, if they were diligently collected and well sifted, confirm some philosophical speculations, and lead the way to further discoveries.

There is a mountain in the State of Vermont called Archutney, or the Three Brothers, a single conical eminence with several inferior summits, which are also conical. Supposing, from its appearance, that it had formerly been volcanic, Dr. Dwight made inquiries concerning it, and one of the first planters assured him he had several times seen flames ascend from it, which could not have been kindled either by hunters or by lightning, for they appeared once when the mountain was covered with snow three feet deep. Dr. Dwight himself observed something more remarkable connected with this mountain.

3!yu』 On the 10th of October, 1803, I was riding from Dartmouth College to Charlestown. A strong south wind blew during the whole day. The sky was overcast, and the clouds, flying low, impinged at times against the sides of the mountain, and covered its top. In these clouds, at a small distance from the summit, and in such a direction as to make an angle of about 25° with the perpendicular height of the mountain, appeared a luminous spot, from ten o'clock in the morning till four in the afternoon, the whole period during which the mountain was within our view, All this time the clouds wore a misty appearance, every where nearly uniform, and moved with great rapidity. Yet the luminous spot continued in exactly the same position, and scarcely at all changed its appearance. In a few instances the clouds were so thin, that the beams of the sun were faintly but distinctly seen on the side of the mountain. Generally, they were intercepted, As the clouds

clouds changed their position every moment; as the sun, during this time, passed over ninety degrees of the heavens; as, when the spot was first seen, we were perhaps eight or ten miles north, and when it was last seen about the same distance south of the mountain; I could think of no satisfactory reason, why the position and appearance of the spot continued unchanged.'-vol. ii. p. 95.

About twelve months afterwards he saw a similar phenomenon over the mountain Taghkanne. The luminous spot continued fixed in its relative position to the summit for several hours, though the wind was blowing violently, and the clouds were moving rapidly before it; nor did it disappear till it was gradually lost in the twilight. Every where else the cloud was of an uniform density, and, from the rapidity of its motion, fifty or sixty miles of its extent must have passed over the spot; which was at times so bright, that he and his companion thought the sun was shining through the aperture. In both cases the position of the luminous area, with respect to the mountain, was the same; the density and aspect of the clouds was the same, the direction and strength of the wind also, and both occurred at the same season of the year.

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Is this phenomenon of the same kind with those which Humboldt describes as appearing on the granitic summit of Duida, and on the summit of Guaraco, by the testimony of the natives, confirmed by what he himself has observed as Cuchivera? Some such appearance may explain a story which Boyle introduced in his account of Mr. Clayton's diamond,

There came hither,' he says, 'about two years since, out of America, the Governor of one of the principal colonies there, an ancient virtuoso, and one that has the honour to be a member of the Royal Society. The gentleman, finding some of the chief affairs of his country to another and me, made me divers visits; and on one of them, when I inquired what rare stones they had in those parts of the Indies he belonged to, he told me that the Indians had a tradition that, in a certain hardly accessible hill, a pretty way up in the country, there was a stone which, in the night time, shined very vividly, and to a great distance; and he assured me that, though he thought it not fit to venture himself so far among those savages, yet, he purposely sent thither a bold Englishman, with some natives to be his guides; and that this messenger brought him back word that, at a distance from the hillock, he plainly perceived such a shining stone as the Indians' tradition mentioned; and, being stimulated by curiosity, had slighted those superstitious fears of the inhabitants, and with much ado, by reason of the difficulty of the way, had made a shift to clamber up to that part of the hill where, by a very heedful observation, he supposed himself to have seen the light: but, whether it were that he had mistaken the place, or for some other reason, he could not find it there, though, when he was returned to his former station,