THE YOUTH’S CABINET.

The Ignis Fatuus.

TY on wandering meteor, known to
the vulgar as the Will-o’-the-
Wisp, has given rise to con-
siderable speculation and contro-

versy. Burying grounds, fields of battle,

low meadows, valleys and marshes, are
its ordinary haunts. By some eminent
naturalists, particularly Willoughby and

Ray, it has been maintained to be only

the shining of a great number of the

male glow-worms in England, and the
pyraustz in Italy, flying together—an
opinion to which Mr. Kirby, the ento-
mologist, inclines. The luminosities ob-
served in several cases may have been
due to this cause, but the true meteor
of the marshes cannot be thus explained.

The following instance of its appearance

is abridged from the Entomological

Magazine :—“ Two travelers proceeding

across the moors between Hexham and

Alston, were startled, about ten o’clock

at night, by the sudden appearance of a

light, close to the road-side, about the

size of the hand, and of a well-defined

.oval form. The place was very wet,

and the peat moss had been dug out,
leaving what are locally termed ‘ peat-
pots,’ which soon fill with water, nour-
ishing a number of confervee, or water
plants, which are converted into peat.
During the process of decomposition,
these places give out large quantities of
gas. The light was about three feet
from the ground, hovering over peat-
pots, and it moved nearly parallel with
the road for about fifty yards, when it
vanished, probably from the failure of
the gas. The manner in which it dis-
appeared was similar to that of a candle
being blown out.”

The ignis fatuiis has not become so
strange in various continental districts
as with us. We have the best account
of it from Mr. Blesson, who examined
it abroad with great care and diligence.
“The first time,” he states, “I saw the
ignis fatuiis, was in a valley, in the forest
of Gorbitz, in the New Mark. This
valley cuts deeply in compact loam, and
is marshy on its lower part. During
the day, bubbles of air were seen rising