WHAT LIGHTNING DOES EACH YEAR.
It is probably not generally known or even imagined, says a writer on lightning, in Leslie's Monthly for September, that every year in this country between seven and eight hundred lives are lost by lightning stroke, and more than a thousand persons injured. During 1899 there were 4,253 animals—cattle, horses, mules, sheep or pigs—killed by lightning in the open fields, while the value of the property destroyed, either directly or through fires caused by bolts, was estimated at six million dollars. There are numberless cases on record where whole herds of sheep and cattle have been struck with fatal effect. In one instance, in Colorado, ninety-one sheep were slaughtered by a single stroke, and fifty-two in another. In Iowa, where during one year 266 head of cattle were killed by lightning, the curious fact was noticed that 118 were found in close contact with wire fences. Their death was probably caused by the shock received from the fence and not from the direct stroke, as it was evident in many cases that the lightning struck the fence at some distance from the animals. If there had been sufficient ground connections from the fence the cattle would probably have been saved.