“Will-o'-the-Wisps”

FOX, HOWARD

PROF. GEIKIE, in his introductory lecture of the Murchison Chair of Geology at Edinburgh, which appeared in NATURE, vol. vii. p. 184, mentions that he never had the good fortune to encounter one of these legendary sprites. It may not be uninteresting to some of your readers to know that they are still extant. On October 5 last I was walking to the “Lizard” with a friend, and near Ruan Major we saw a light travelling fast over the country, which my friend took to be the light of a dogcart. As there was no road in the neighbourhood we watched, and soon saw two others rising from the same place and bounding over the country till they seemed to be about thirty feet from the ground in a swampy field opposite us, when they disappeared. Another rose from the other side of the field, and after reaching the middle of the field, it also disappeared. In about ten minutes we saw five or six, but none afterwards.