Bosman relates, that during his stay at Elmina, he found some old papers, in which it was recorded, that in a violent storm, which occurred in 1651, the lightning had not only melted several swords, without singing the scabbards; but had melted gold and silver, without touching the bags. Sometimes lights are seen upon the mast-heads of ships. Dampier saw an instance in the Chinese seas after a violent storm of rain and thunder. It resembled a star. Camoens alludes to a similar phenomenon in the Lusiad. It is called by the Spanish and Portuguese, Corpus Sanctum; they esteem it an omen of fine weather; and go immediately to prayers when they observe it. Sometimes the entire sea appears like a floating mass of electrical fluid. On the coasts of New Guinea2 are scen, for many leagues, a vast profusion of minute substances during the night. They are also witnessed on the coast of New Holland; where they are, generally, of a greyish colour. In some seas they are red; hence the fables relative to seas of blood, with which the world has occasionally been amused. Sailors call this collection sea 1 Guinea Coast, p. 97. Ed. 1721. 2 When M. de Maupertuis was in Lapland, he saw a lake covered with small yellow grains; which, upon examination, he supposed to be the crysalids of flies, which he saw in myriads, having green heads. And when Dentrescasteux was in 42° latitude of the Atlantic, he saw voluminous masses of water, rolling, as it were, like globes of fire; and the sea appeared illuminated in almost every direction. This phosphorescent appearance he attributed not only to the animalculæ, to which we have above alluded, but to an highly electrified atmosphere. * Voyage in Search of La Perouse, vol. i. p. 15. 47. saw-dust. On the Austral-Asian coast, Peron discovered, during a squall of wind, a broad belt of phosphoric light floating upon the water. Upon examination, he found this brilliancy to proceed from innumerable animals, swimming at different depths. These proved to belong to a new genus of Molusca, to which Peron gave the name of Pyrosoma. The phosphorensic matter, we have alluded to, as being impregnated on the African coast, is glutinous'. In rainy nights it is not observable; but when the stars or the moon shine bright, they are remarkably brilliant. The bodies composing this mass are regularly organised; and Dr. Solander and Sir Joseph Banks, therefore, naturally supposed them to be the spawn or eggs of a certain species of marine animal. These animalcules belong almost entirely to tropical seas. When they are separated from the water, the water loses its phosphorescence; and the animalcules soon lose it themselves, when exposed to the dry air. ས. In India there are frequent nightly illuminations, when rain has not fallen for some time. These spontaneous lights, the Indians attribute to the friction of bamboos against each other. But they are frequently seen where there are no bamboos, and may therefore probably be referred to electrical causes. The province of New Biscay, in North America, has an atmosphere, which is sometimes so highly electrical, that sufficient matter may 1 Vid. Grant's Voyage of Discovery, 4to. p. 24. 2 Major Pike's Travels through the Western Territories of North America. be collected from the skin of a bear to give considerable shocks. And as Saussure and Jalabert1 were one day crossing the Alps, they encountered several thunder clouds; when they discovered their bodies to be so full of electrical fire, that flashes darted from their fingers; their joints cracked; and they felt the same sensation, as when they had previously been electrified by art2. On the coast of Upper Guinea, the atmosphere is frequently electrified to a most astonishing degree. When Labillardiere was sailing in those seas, he saw, during a dark night, a luminous column of great extent issue from under the clouds, and alight on the surface of the ocean; so that, for a time, the ship seemed to be sailing in a sea of fire. On the eastern coast of Samos, meteoric fires are often seen hovering in stormy nights upon the mountains. They are frequent, too, upon the mountains of Lycia; proceeding, it may be supposed, from exhalations of ignited hydrogen gas. In Peru3 meteors have been known to exhibit themselves, that lasted from half-past six in the evening till half-past ten. 'Brydone's Travels in Sicily and Malta, p. 99. • The electric fluid will not melt ice, or any congealed substance. Every electrified body is surrounded by matter in motion. This matter is the electric fluid. The electric fluid will not pass through hard stones; amber; oils; dry air; sulphur; or the ashes of animal and vegetable substances. In respect to the principal metals, they are all conductors. The best being gold; and the worst lead. Wood, in its green state, is a conductor. When it is baked, it is a non-conductor: when it is burned to charcoal, it resumes its conducting qualities; but when it is reduced to ashes, it again becomes a non-conductor. The cause of death by the electric fluid is unknown; as no injury on the vessels or intestines appears on dissection. 3 At Canete, vid. Present State of Peru, 4to. 391. 1805. CHAPTER VII. No landscape, however admirable in other respects, is complete without motion. The swan must glide along the river; the eagle wheel among the crags; goats must bound among the precipices; or herds or flocks graze, in irregular groups, along the valley. For this reason, the poets never fail to animate their ideal landscapes with some interesting associations, that imply motion; such as the waving of woods, the falling of waters, or the flight of birds. What a fine passage is that in Thomson, where he enlivens the sterile rocks of St. Kilda with the movements of a group of eagles! High from the summit of a craggy cliff, Hung o'er the deep, such as, amazing, frowns Unstain'd he holds; while many a league to sea In the motion of landscape, what can be more agreeable than the waving of corn or of trees; the calm gliding, or the fierce rushing of rivers; the rising of columns of smoke1; the unpremeditated motion of animals; and 'Lambinus has well described those various involutions of rising smoke, which give such an indescribable charm to woodland landscapes. Cum trepido seu tremulo motu sursum feruntur. Rotantes, torquentes, glomerantes, the majestic movements of the clouds, marching, as it were, before a storm, or gliding, in stupendous masses, along the vast expanse of the horizon. II. Even vegetables have voluntary motion. Their roots burrow under walls; they forsake barren for fertile soils; and their leaves follow the sun. In the morning they point to the east; at noon to the south; towards evening to the west. Then they hang their heads, as it were, and seem to repose. The sensitive class exhibits a still more lively evidence; while the moving plant has an impulse even allied to that of an animal. Minerals acquire fluidity and motion through the medium of heat. The lava of Vesuvius has been known to roll seven miles; that of Etna thirty miles: while a magnetic ball, floating in Globos flammarum appellat flammas rotarum in morem volventes. Sic Virgil. Ætnæ, globorum in morem erumpentes. lib. iii. 1. 574; also Georg. lib. i. l. 473; also Spenser, Faery Queen; b. iii. c. vii. st. 5. Et jam summa procul villarum culmina fumant Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbræ. In the mind of a lover of landscape, what interesting associations do these two lines create! "The sight of so many smoking cottages," said Burns, one day, walking with a friend, on the Braid Hills, near Edinburgh, “gives me a pleasure, which none can understand, who have not witnessed, like myself, the happiness and the worth, which they contain." The author of the Fleece felt all this, when he painted The little smiling cottage, warm embower’d— The little smiling cottage, where at eve The peasant meets his children at the door, |