nnd in the Neighlourhood of Agcn. 2^1 



to the emperor Frederick. Its form was that of a delta, with 

 a triangular point. It Is still shown at Enslsheim as a wou- 

 dcrful phcenomenon." — Joh. Lmturii Appendix ad Fascial^ 

 lum Tcmponim JVerneri Roltemnck. in Fol.I. Scripfor. Rer. 

 Germ. His I or. p. 580. 



The same year (1492), after the festival of St. Martin, 

 a stone weighing 300 pounds and more, hard, and of diffe- 

 rent colours, fe!J in Alsace, with a great noise, from a bril- 

 liant and flaming cloud. The rest of the horizon exhibited no 

 clouds. At the same moment, the heavens being still serene, 

 a large red cross was observed around the moon. 



In a rescript of king Maximilian, dated Augsbouro-, 

 Nov. 12, 1503, that sovereign mentions this stone, which 

 he says fell near him while at the head of his army ; and he 

 gives it as a presage of the victory which he had gained over 

 the crown of France*. 



Brant also has made this stone the subject of some 

 poems f , 



One of the fragments of this stone was suspended and pre- 

 served in the church of Plnsishcim till a few years bkck, when 

 it was conveyed to the library of Colmar, and there depo- 

 sited. It weighs about 150 pounds at least, notwithstanding 

 the specimens which have been detached from it ; and pro- 

 fessor Butenschoen says that this stone is beyond all doubt 

 that spoken of In the before-mentioned chronicles. 



M. Felix Desportes, praefect of the department of the 

 Upper Rhine, having permitted several fragments to be de- 

 tached from this mass, in order to be sent to me, I am in- 

 debted to that zealous protector of the sciences, and to pro- 

 fessor Butenschoen, for the advantage of being able to give 

 a comparative description of its characters, and for an ana- 

 lysis of it, which Vauquelin undertook to make. 



" The different specimens of this stone which I received 

 did not exhibit that continued black vitrified crust observed 

 on the stone of Sales, and other stones of the same kind ; 

 but I discovered this crust in the cavities which had been 

 sheltered from the shock and from friction ; and these re- 

 mains are sufficient evidences to attest that this crust had ex- 

 isted. It exhibits the puffed-up appearance of vitrification : 

 the colour is only rather brown than black ; which arises 

 •ither from the cflfect of timCj or from the greater quantity 



• Rescriptum Maximiliani regis de cruciata, &c. die ii Nov. 1505. in 

 vol. Rtr. Germ, none, ik- pace publico, aiiion; J. P. Datt. Ulm, 169S, 



p. iI4. 



t l)c rulgctroimmani j.im nuper, anno 14.92, prope Basilcani, &c. In 

 varus Sebastian i Brant carminibus. Ba«ilLa;, 149S, 410. 



T2 of 



