METEORITES IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. 365 



in a neighbouring meadow ; one of which, being soon after 

 taken up by a young woman, burnt her hand; another burnt 

 a countryman's hat ; and a third was said to strike off the 

 branch of a mulberry tree, and to cause the tree to wither " 



Soldoni himself thought that " the stones were gene- 

 rated in the air by a combination of mineral substances 

 which had risen somewhere or other as exhalations from 

 the earth, but not from Vesuvius ". 



Very shortly afterwards (1796) appeared the work of 

 Edward King, Remarks Concerning Stones said to have Fallen 

 from the Clouds, in which this and other falls were enumer- 

 ated and discussed. In regard to the Sienna stones he recalls 

 instances in which volcanic dust was known to fall upon 

 ships 100 leagues from the scene of eruption, and quotes 

 Sir William Hamilton's account of the Vesuvius eruption in 

 which ashes appeared to be projected to a height of twenty- 

 five or thirty miles ; he suggests as an explanation of the 

 Sienna stones that these ashes were carried beyond Sienna 

 northwards, and were then brought back by a northerly 

 wind, congealing from the air, which he had always regarded 

 as " the great consolidating fluid out of which all solid bodies 

 are composed ". 



Fall of the Wold Cottage Stones. 



At the very time when King was writing, a stone was 

 being exhibited in London which weighed fifty-six pounds 

 and was seen to fall at Wold Cottage in Yorkshire on 13th 

 December, 1795. 



The following is the account given by the handbill which 

 accompanied the exhibition". " It penetrated through twelve 

 inches of soil and six inches of solid chalk rock, and in 

 burying itself had thrown up an immense quantity of earth 

 to a great distance ; as it fell a number of explosions were 

 heard about as loud as pistols. 



"In the adjacent villages the sounds heard were taken 

 for guns at sea ; but at two adjoining villages were so dis- 

 tinct of something passing through the air towards the habi- 

 tation of Mr. Topham that five or six people came up to see 

 if anything extraordinary had happened to his house or 



