?98 Kotice respecting the Stones 



4. Kotice respecting the Stones which fell lately in 

 France. 



In thesi^t'ngof the Institute on the 9th of May, C.Four- 

 Croy xead a letter addressed to C. \''auquelin from the town 

 of Aigie, m the department of Calvados (the ci-devant Nor- 

 mandy), containing a circumstantial account of the recent 

 fall ot a considerable number of stones. The following de- 

 tails arc extracted from it : 



On April 26th, about one in the afternoon, the sky being 

 almost serene, there was heard a rolling noise like that of 

 thunder. It seemed to proceed from one cloud which was 

 on the horizon, and which the inhabitants beheld with unea- 

 siness ; when, to their great surprise and terror, explosions 

 like the reports of a camion, someiimes single and some- 

 times double, were beard, with a violent hissing : phaeno- ' 

 mena which struck a terror even into domestic animals, for 

 the cows bellowed, and the poultry fled to a place of shelter. 

 This noise was succeeded by the fall of a great number of 

 stones of ditfcrent sizes, weighing ten, eleven, and even 

 seventeen pounds. The largest entered the earth to the 

 depth of a loot. Several of Ihem fell in the court-yard of 

 M. Bois-de-la-ville, and one of them very near him. Many 

 curious persons collected some of them, and C. Fourcroy 

 kid before the Institute one of these fragments, which, when 

 compared with the fragment of a stone that fell near Ville- 

 Franche, presented to the Institute in the same silting by 

 C. Pictet, had a great resemblance to it in every point : the 

 same colour, the same texture, the same black crust; in a 

 word, the fragments could not be distinguished from each 

 other but by the size. 



C. la Maick then reported that he had received from 

 the depaitment of Calvados several letters, making mention 

 of a globe of fire vyhich had been seen to pass, proceeding 

 in a direction from west to east, with great velocity, on the 

 eame day and at the same ho-r at which the event alluded 

 to took place. It u-as added, that this meteor had been seen 

 at sea before it reached the continent. 



If any doubts remain to our readers on the certainty of 

 the real fall of those foreign bodies of which we have fre- 

 quently given an account, we request them to peruse a work 

 w hich has latelv appeared under the title of Lilhologre yitmo- 

 spherique, M. Izarn, the auihor, who is professor of philo- 

 sophy, gives in this work a complete treatise on phasnomena 

 of this kind, It is xlividcd into three sections, The first con- 

 tains 



