73 On Stones tliat have fallen from the AtmospTler'C. 



even directly the reverse of others. In future, it will be 

 very advisable that the observers of fallen stones observe 

 and record the direction or bearing of the perforation made 

 bv the body in the earth, which will give us perhaps the 

 course of the path nearer than any other observation. 



'' 4. In the ilight of these meteoric stones, it is com- 

 monly observed that they yield a loud whizzing sound. 

 Indeed it would be surprising if they did not. For if the 

 like sound be given by the smooth and regularly formed 

 cannon ball, and heard at a considerable distance, how ex- 

 ceedini'ly great must be that of a body so much larger, 

 which is of an irregular form and surface too, and striking 

 the air with 30 or 100 times the velocity. 



'^ 5. That they connnonly burst and fly in pieces in 

 their rapid flight, is a circumstance exceeding likely to 

 happen, both from the violent state of fusion on their sur- 

 face, and from the extreme rapidity of their motion through 

 tile air. If a grinding stone, from its quick rotation, be 

 sometimes burst and fly in pieces, and if the same thing 

 happens to cannon balls, when made of stone, and dis- 

 charged with considerable velocity, n^erely by the friction 

 and resistance of the air, how much more is the same to be 

 expected to happen to the atmospheric stones, moving with 

 more than 50 times the velocity, and when their surface 

 mav well be supposed to be partly loosened or dissolved by 

 the'cxtremity of the heat there. 



" 6. That the stones strike the ground with a great force, 

 and penetrate to a considerable depth, as is usually ob- 

 served, is a circumstance only to be expected, from the 

 extreme rapidity of their motion, and their great weight, 

 when v/e consider that a cannon ball, or a mortar shell, 

 will often bury itself many mches, or even some feet in the 

 earth. 



" 7. That these stones, when soon sought after and 

 found, are hot, and exhibit the marks of recent fusion, are 

 also the natural consequences of the extreme degree of in- 

 tlamniation in which their surface had been put during their 

 fli'i;ht through the air. 



~" 8. That these stony masses have all the same external 

 appearance and contexture, as well as internally the same 

 nature and composition, are circumstances that strongly 

 point out an identity of origin, whatever may be the cause 

 to which they owe so generally uniform a conformation* 

 And when it is considered, Qthly, that in those respects 

 they differ totally from all terrestrial compositions hitherto 

 known or discovered, they lead the mind sti-ongly to 



ascribe 



