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Captain Dibden gave an account also, that he was lately at Virginia, 1763: that the inhabitants of Norfolk had changed their opinions in respect to fixing of wires and small rods of iron on the tops of their houses; from the frequent instances they have lately had of their being melted, or destroyed, by the violence of the lightening: and that now they adopted in their stead, rods of iron from half an inch thick, to three quarters of an inch thick, or more. That those rods ended in a point at the top, and extended from three feet above their houses down to the ground: and that many houses had one of these conducting irons at each end.
This account appears very material upon the present occasion, as it serves to confirm the conjectures that are now offered, in a manner so obvious as to require no particular explanation.
The captain added, that, though the pine trees are considerably higher than the oaks in the American woods, yet the oaks are the oftenest attacked by the lightening: and that he does not remember any oaks growing among the pine trees, when the latter have suffered by lightening: which must be owing to the greater resistance arising from the unctuous nature of the pine trees.
