The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1894-05-04
CONTINUOUS somsARDmsNr.
Places on the Globe Where Thunder and
Lightning Are Incessant.

The phemomenon known as lightning
followed by rolling, revcrbcrating report,
recognized as thunder, Is common to o
wide zone OF the earth, but it is not gener-
ally known that there are localities where
the vivid flashes and the deafening peals
are incessant. The most notable of these
continuous lightning districts Is on the
eastern coast of the island of San Domin-
60, leading member Of the group of the
West Indies.
1t is not meant that the lightning is here
continuous tho year round, but that with
tho commencement of the rainy season
comes this zigzag feature of electric illumi-
nation which is then continuous day and
night for weeks. The storm center is not
continuously local, but shifts over a con-
siderable area and as thunder is seldom
heard over greater distance than eight
miles, and the lightning in the night will
illuminate so as to be seen 80 miles, there
may be days in some localities where the
twinkle on the sky is in continuous sue
cession, while the rolling reports are alb
sent Then again come days and nights
when the electric artillery is piercing in
its detonations, and especially Is this the
case when two separate local cloud centers
join, as 1t were, in an electrical duel, and,
as sometimes occurs, third participant
appears to add to the elemental warfare.
Then there is blazing sky, with binding
vividness and stunning peals that seem to
pin the listener to the earth Long before
the echoes can die away come others, I'M
til the auricular mechanism seems ham,
mered into chaos.
Just how and why it Is that there is here
generated so immense an amount Of cleo
tricity as to keep up such an incessant ig-
milton Is one of those problems that can
only be solved when sufficient data are at
hand to work upon. 1t is probable that,
with the commencement of tho rainy sea-
son this region is the border of opposing
air and ocean currents whose friction has
something to do in the case. This would
tend to bring into contact opposing clouds
variously charged, and as lightning is the
passing of electricity from one cloud to
another seeking equilibrium, or the pass
ing of tho fluid from cloud to the earth,
1t is probable that in this continued fric-
ton of currents may DO found u starting
point to unravel tho mystery. 1t is in
swirling and opposing cloud strata, espe-
cially where these get into gyratory mo-
ton, that electrical phenomena are most
abundant, just as imam even, uniform flow
Of clouds such disturbance is rarer and
often entirely absent,
Tt would not seem, from tho meager in
formation bearing on this matter, that the
electrical interchange is between the clouds
and tho earth, as there is no reference
made to what are termed lightning strokes
when the descending current strikes u
tree, building or other object, or strikes
the ground directly. But it would certainly
be trying ordeal on any fairly balanced
nervous organization to behold blazing
sky for days and nights together and lis
ten to the incessant rolling of the thunder
until the very senses seemed stupefcd to
further recognition. Happily such locali-
ties have been rarely bestowed by nature
and this one is Stunned by the dusky ma
tives, and the moro advanced fauna, when
the wet season approaches, leave it by in
stinct. Dispatch.