220 Account and Descripliiti of a Stone 



all repaired together to the place where tlie luminous body 

 had been seen to bury itself. There, at the bottom of a 

 hollow, eighteen inches in depth, that is to say, of the 

 whole thickness of the vegetable earth, they found a large, 

 black, irregular, ovoid mass, according to their expression 

 like a calf's head. It was entirely covered with a blackish 

 crust; it was no longer warm, and h:id the smell of gun- 

 powder. They observed also that it was split in several 

 places, so that Chardon by thrusting his bill into one of 

 tiie fissures made it fall to pieces. I was not able to leam 

 properly whether this fissure was lined by a crust similar to 

 that on the surface ; they only thoug-iit they remembered 

 that it was partly black. This mass, having been trans- 

 ported to Crepicr's house, their first care was to examine 

 the nature of so unexpected an object, and what it con- 

 tained. The stone therefore was weighed, and imme- 

 diatclv broken ; but finding onlv a stone, from avarice, 

 which did not fail to succeed their emotions of fear, they 

 proceeded to a sentiment of indifierence for this mass, while 

 the pha^nomenon was imputed to the most whimsical and 

 supernatural causes, according to the kind of impression 

 •which had been communicated to the spectators. 



" The weight of this stone was about twenty pounds. 



" The noise of this event was soon spread ; and the com- 

 missioner of (he executive power to the administration of 

 Ville-Franche ijeini!; informed of it, he sent to rc(juest the 

 stone, with information respecting its fall. A fragment of 

 it, weighing about se\en pounds, was brought to him, a 

 part of which, with an account of the phsenomenon, he 

 transmitted to one of the members of the conventional as- 

 sembly. I do not know what attention was paid to it, and 

 what cflect it produced, at a time when every mind was ab- 

 sorbed in politics. 



*' M. Place, a merchant of Ville-Franche, who was at 

 Sales at the same time I was there, assured me that he was 

 a witness, at; well as manv inhabitants of Ville-Franche, to 

 the passage of this luminous globe over the town; that he 

 heard its humming noise ; that its elevation could not ex- 

 ceed 300 toises ; and that its direction was from east by 

 south to west by north. 



" I must add, that the simplicity of most of the reports 

 made to me, their perfect as;ieement in all the important 

 points, and the great number of persons who saw this phae-' 

 nomenon, which took place at that time of day most fa- 

 vourable for its bein^; generally observed, leave no doubt 

 with me in regard to the veracity of the account which 



I have 



