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writer could not be ascribed to
such a cause.
2. Phosphorus: It has been suggested
that the lights may be caused in
some way by the element phospho-
rus. Phosphorus, however, is so
easily oxidized that it does not
occur in the free state. It is
usually locked up in stable and
relatively insoluble chemical
compounds and therefore cannot
be a cause of the Brown Mountain
light.
3. Phosphorescence (fox fire): Some
organic bodies, such as stumps
or logs, become luminous or
phosphorescent by slow oxidation
and combustion in the course of
their decay. Such lights are too
feeble to be seen at a distance
of several miles and are unlike
the lights seen by the writer.
4. Radium emanations: The late F. H.
Hossfield is reported to have
found a piece of pitchblende, an
ore of radiumt near the south-
west end of Brown Mountain, and
some therefore think that Brown
Mountain may contain a large
body of radium ore, which might
by emanation produce the ob-
served lights. So far as the
writer has been able to learn,
the material that was supposed
to be pitchblende was never so
identified by actual tests, and
the place where it was found is
not accurately known. The speci-
men itself has been lost; but
pitchblende, even if it occurred
---in large clepostts, could not
give rise to lights like those
seen over Brown Mountain. No
known radium ore shows that kind
of luminosity.
5. Chemical reaction between hydrogen
sulfide a~d lead oxide: In a
letter received from Mr. E. C.
Ivey, of Hickory, it is suggested
that the lights may be so caused,
and it is stated that both

hydrogen sulfide and lead oxide
occur in Brown Mountain and that
hydrogen sulfide will ignite in
the presence of lead oxide. Sul-
phur springs occur on the west
side of Brown Mountain and lead
prospects are reported on the
east side, but the possibility
that there is any direct rela-
tion between them is so slight
as to be highly improbable.
6. "Blockade" (illicit) stills: Many
stills have been operated by
"moonshiners" in the vicinity of
Brown Mountain. A man who claims
to have been an eyewitness
states that screens are placed
about these stills to shut off
the light from the fires but
that from time to time the fires
are raked out and the covers of
the stills removed, so that the
clouds of steam whjch arise from
them are illuminated by the
fires below. The "moonshiners"
are also said to use lights for
signaling. It is possible that
the light with "seething motion"
seen by Mr. Gregory may have
been of this origin, but there
are not enough such stills and
they probably would not be in
sufficiently continuous opera-
tion to produce lights in the
number and in the regularity of
appearance of those seen at
Brown Mountain.
7.St. Elmo's fire: St. Elmo's fire
is a brushlike, luminous, elec-
trical discharge that sometimes
takes place £rem masts, light-
ning conductors, and other
pointed objects, especially
during thunderstorms. In his
correspondence with Messrs.
Clark and Perry, the trustworthy
observers already mentioned, Dr.
C. G. Abbot, of the Smithsonian
Institution, suggested that the
Brown Mountain light may be due
to St. Elmo's fire, but there
8
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