572 Account of a Shouer df Stores'. 



©f which I send you. It was accompanied with a Flonfcf/ 

 which I cannot yet transmit to you, l)ccause the owner is 

 unwilling to give it up. I shall write to him, and I do not 

 doubt that his answer will authorize mc to send it*. This 

 stone, which nearly resembles those used in paving, is 

 about a foot in circumference. It is heavier than flint, is 

 covered with a black crust, its interior colour being light 

 gray, mingled with iron colour. It appears to contam par- 

 ticles of iron, and some brilliant grains like silver. 



" The proces verbal ascribes the noise, heard in the 

 morning of Saturday the 8th of September, to a volcanic 

 explosion ; and this was the first idea which I entertained of 

 fhe matter. But ihis idea was not confirmed by the ex- 

 istence of any crater; beside, is it to be presumed that the 

 Boisc of an explosion could be heard at diflerent places with- 

 in twelve leagues distance from the spot, at the sainc mo- 

 Kient, and attc nded v.-ilh the •■ame circumsfances ? Is it 

 to be supposed that an explosion could cast a shower of 

 stones over twelve leagues of circumference } Now the stone 

 which fell near Apt explains the whistling that followed the 

 first noi::e, which, it is very certain, could be only the ef- 

 fect of the fall of like stones, which, by the rapid motion 

 produced by their weight, were invisil)le to the eye. I leave 

 it to the learned to explain this phcenomenon ; and in the 

 mean lime I shall write to all the comnuuies in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Luberon, requesting that more particular re- 

 searches into this matter may be made. 



" Letters from Aix state that tlie noise of the 8th of 

 September was heard at that place, where it was supposed 

 tliat the powder magazine of Avignon was blown up. 



"(Signed) M. A.Boi;kdon. 



" P. S. I forgot to say, that the stone mentioned in vhis 

 letter has a fcelid smell which resembles that of sour milk. 

 Struck with steel it yields very few sparks." 



A true copy.' The Minister of the Interior, Chapt.\£- 



Proces Firlal. 



'■''On the &th of September,- 12th year of the republic, 

 about half past ten in the morning, there appearing only a 

 tew light clouds in the heavens, and the weather being re- 

 markably calm,- a noise resembling that of a cannon fired At 



''■'■ Tliij stone h -.s been since transmitted to the Minister of ihc Inte- 

 rior, ami was presented to the Natiun:il Institute on the i'<xh of Brn- 

 niairc, and is now deposited in the Museum of Natur^il History. It !> 

 cxactiv of tlic same kind ai tliose which haVc been gathticd alter siiiiiur 

 phjenonuiu. 



the 



