Accoutit of a Shower of Stones. 2*1 



nevertheless in the Hst of simples until their constituent 

 facts can be ascertained by analyses. 



It is worthy of remari:, that this earth which is so prized 

 in America for a manure, was esteemed of old in Asia as 

 an ini'-redient in a cement : among the antient Syrians it 

 was one of the materials forming the plaster of their walls ; 

 and as it holds an intermediate place between lime and pot- 

 ash, it can easily be conceived how it may act both as a ce- 

 ment and a maiiure. It is to be hoped chemists will turn 

 their attention more particularly than has been heretofore 

 done to this important but neglected subject. 



XLVI. Account of a Shnivei- of Stones; in a Letter from 

 the Prefect of the Department of Vaiicleurc to the French 

 Minister of the Interior, dated November 10, 1803. 



0?r the 8th of September, between ten and eleven in 

 the morning, being at Bastidonne, a village situated be- 

 tween Perthuis and Mirabeau, I heard a very extraordinary 

 noise, which appeared to proceed from the mountains ot 

 Luberon. My mind being preoccupied, and following, at noi 

 great distance, the drums of tlic national guard of the com- 

 nume which I was going to visit, I paid very little attention 

 to the foregoing circumstance, and therefore I can say no- 

 thing of the cilect of this noise from my own particular ob- 

 servation ; but I have since found that it was heard at the 

 'same moment by the inhabitants of the several communes 

 vhich I have since visited, as far as Gordes. The municipal 

 officers, and various other persons with whom I have con- 

 versed in these communes, agree in declaring that tlie noise 

 appeared to them severally to be at the distance of a quarter 

 of a league from the place in which they then were; all 

 adding, that after a sound that appeared to be thunder, 

 which might last above five or six minutes, they distinctly 

 heard a whistling in the air, which some compared to a 

 s\\ arm of flies passing near them, and others to the whis- 

 tling of bullets. 



" In the conmiune of Gordes some persons imagined 

 they perceived a trembling of the earth between six and 

 seven in the evening of the same day. 



" I requested the nnmicipal officers, who mentioned this 

 phaenomenon to me, to endeavour to discover the cause, and 

 to .send me whatever information they could procure ; but 

 have hitherto received only the single procos verbal, a copy 



of 



