A Strange Phenomenon

Abstract

RELATIVE to the letter of Mr. James Moir, under the above title, which appeared recently in NATURE, I beg to observe that in the Highlands of Perthshire, some forty years ago, two men found themselves enveloped in flames, somewhat in the same style as Mr. Moir was on February 18 last. One Mr. John Stewart, who, for many years, drove the Mail gig between Dunkeld and Aberfeldy, told me that on a certain dark night, he and another man, climbing a rocky, heathery height in Rannock, were all at once set on flames by some mysterious fire, which appeared to proceed from the heather, which they were traversing, and the more they tried to rub the flames off the more tenaciously they seemed to adhere, and the more the fire increased in brightness and magnitude. Moreover, the long heather agitated by their feet, emitted streams of burning vapour, and for the space of a few minutes they were in the greatest consternation. They believed that they barely escaped a living cremation. Of course their liberal share of native superstition, along with the weird gloom of the. night in the weird wilderness remote from human habitation, rendered their position the more alarming. Mr. Stewart did not mention whether the weather was stormy or not; but without doubt the object of their fear was St. Elmo's Fire. The ignis fatuus has been frequently seen in these Highland districts hovering over marshes, rivers, and churchyards, which was believed by the superstitious to be the ghosts of the dead. When the ignis fatuus was seen flickering over the graveyard, it was a sign—with them—that some one was to be buried there soon, and when seen floating over a river, it was a sign that some one was to be drowned there that night or soon after, the floating, wandering lights being their ghosts. Drainage, in this respect, has effected many changes.