A week or so ago, during a thunderstorm, lightning in the shape of a ball—a well-known but rare phenomenon—descended in the yard behind a house at Themenau, Austria. The ball, about one foot in diameter, was of a brilliant blue. On reaching the ground it rolled along a short distance and then burst, flooding the whole neighborhood with a dazzling white light. No damage was immediately apparent, but several hours after flames burst from a building situated at some distance from where the lightning had struck.