338 Ob/ervations on Fire-Balls. 
the clouds, a multitude of red hot ftones of the vitrified 
kind, moft of them quite fmall, but fome of them a pound 
in weight, many of which funk to the depth of more than 
an ell in the earth. One of them pierced the brim of a 
boy’s hat and finged the felt: others, which fell upon trees, 
left traces of their ignition on the leaves. Some of con- 
fiderable fize, which fell in a pond, fplathed the water out’ to 
aconfiderable diftance, and made it even begin to boil. The 
government found means to drain the pond in order to get at 
the ftones, which were purchafed at a dear rate by fome 
Enghfh travellers then m that partof the country; and on 
this account many attempted tomake fuch {tones artificially, 
fo that people in purchafing thefe curiofities were frequently 
in danger of being cheated. 
It was at firft believed that this phenomenon might have 
had fome conneétion with the eruption of Vefuvius, which 
took place the day before; but the Italian naturalifts all now 
agree that this opinion is:entirely void of foundation, as the 
ftones which fell from the atmofphere had no fimilarity to 
the voleanic fubftances thrown up by Vefuvius, and as the 
‘place where they fell was above 200 miles. diftant from 
that mountain. A fione of this kind, which was fub- 
jected to eximination, was inwardly of an afh grey colour ; 
‘and had a dull earthy fracture mixed with fhining metallic 
particles which refembled pyrites.. In other, fpecimens there 
were found octoedral cryfials, which were found to be mig- 
netic iron, The colour on the outfide was’a greyifh black, 
and the wrinkled furface betrayed’ marks of fufion. 
This fubftance, in all probability, was of the fame,nature 
as that which fell, with a dreadful explofion, from a fire-ball 
(bolis) in Gafcony on the 24th of July 1790, as mentioned 
in the Decade Philofophique of February the 29th, 1796, 
and as many others of the like kind quoted.in my/treatife on 
the iron mafs found by Profeffor Pallas, and om fimilar bodies. 
Since that period two new circumitances of this nature have 
been madé known. In the Englifh journals: there is an ac- 
count 
vs 
