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786 - KERGUELEN’S VOYAGE TO THE NORTH.
The moft celebrated philofophers have long maintained an opinion that the element
of fire was difperfed throughout exiftence, and that folid and fluid bodies were abun-
dantly impregnated with igneous particles. I conceive that the ather of Newton, the
elementary fire of Boerhaave, and eleétric fire, are the fame fubftance, whofe different
effeéts vary in proportion to the impulfe, agitation, direCtion, ftrength and quantity of
the affembled matter ; hence the action of the fun on this fubftance produces the double
advantage of light and heat. Thus the attrition of a globe of glafs reunites a certain
quantity of it, which managed and directed with art, produces the various phenomena
of electricity. Thus the fudden and violent collifion of two hard bodies elicits fparks,
and the continual fri€tion of two bodies of whatfoever defcription they‘may be, excites
and originates elementary fire in fufficient quantity to inflame and confume any com-
buftible matter expofe to its aétion. "
When a great quantity of particles of fire is accumulated in condenfed clouds which
comprefs and drive them together, the particles of fire then {triking the one againft the
other, inflame, fparkle, kindle into a blaze, and burft with explofion the prifon which
inclofes them. Hence the flafh of lightning and the thunder clap ; and if the lightning
be feen before the thunder be heard, it is becaufe the vibrations which expand from the
igneous matter are more rapid of flight than the undulations of the air which bring
us the found.
When clouds have lefs denfity; when they pafs over fpace more lightly and more
freely ; when they contain only a fmall quantity of the particles of fire, then, fhould they
unite and clafh together, they kindle into flame without explofion; they produce that
filent lightning, and thofe falling ftars which fhine and difappear. When the atmo-
{phere is not too much overfpread with clouds, and that they have no more than the
denfity requifite for fuftaining and leadmg on the particles of fire in their fphere of
mutual attraction, without keeping them in, without heaping or prefling them, then
no explofion fucceeds; but the particles of fire inflame in the open air, and according
to the different figures, though different confiftence of the inflammable matter, and the
different refractions of light, thofe globes, pyramids, radii, fheaves, and columns diffe-
rently coloured of the aurora borealis are feen. ‘The identity of the effence of light.
ning and that of eleétricity, which has latterly been difcovered, and whofe refpective
effects are very various, greatly fupports the hypothefis, that the light of the fun, of
lightning, electric phenomena, common fire, are only different effects of the fame caufe
differently acted upon, difpofed, modified and circumftanced. Thefe aurorz boreales are
greatly ufeful to the inhabitants of the polar regions; it feems as if nature was defirous
by them to make amends for the abfence of the fun, and the privation of his beams.
The fecond of September, having fteered S. W. for twenty-four hours, the wind
going round from S. E. to N. by degrees, I took the latitude at noon, and found it
58° 2’, and longitude 17° 10’ W. by reckoning. I was too much to the weft to make
Rokol ifland, which is diftinguifhable at no greater diftance than four or five leagues,
Not feeing this ifland, I conje¢tured that my reckoning was good, for had I been ten
Jeagues more to the eaft, I muft have feen it; and if, on the contrary, I had been the-
fame diftance more to the weit, I fhould have feen fome part of Iceland.
The third, fourth, and fifth, and the fixth, the wind veered backwards and forwards
from fouth to weft, blowing very frefh and a {trong fea. When it blew from the weft
I f{teered fonth, when from the fouth, weft, in order to take advantage of the W. and
S. W. winds. The fixth, at noon, the wind fkipped round to the W. N. W. in an in-
ftant. Latitude 51° 10’, longitude 16° 52’ W. of Paris. After taking the latitude, I
fleered S. quarter S. W., in order, before night-fall, to get fouth of the rocks called
4 . Brazil,
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