Obfervations on Fire-Balls. ° P 341 
able inftance, which is related by Mr. Stiitz, took place at 
fix o’clock in the evening on the 26th of May 1751, in the 
diftriét of Agram in Sclavonia, This fire-ball, which burft 
afunder into two parts, that had the form of chains of fire 
twifted together (and, according to all appearance, were liquid 
maffes), feemed accompanied with fmoke, and fell with a 
dreadful explofion and fuch force that it fhook the earth, in- 
to which it funk to the depth of three fathoms. One part 
weighed yx and the other 16 pounds. The larger, which 
confifts entirely of iron, and exhibits on its furface the moft 
evident marks of fire, is now to be feen in the Imperial col- 
JeG&tion of natural curiofities at Vienna, together with an at- 
teftation refpecting it from the Confiftory of the Bithopric 
of Agram, who examined feveral eye-witnefles that had feen 
it, and which Mr. Stiitz has inferted in his paper. The 
fame naturalift quotes alfo two other inftances. One is of a 
ftone, which, according to the account given, fell with a 
violent explofion in the diftri& of Eichftadt, and was fo hot 
that it could not be touched till it had been cooled in fnow : 
this ftone confifts of filiceous earth and ferruginous particles, 
and is covered with a cruft of native iron. The other is a 
fhining iron ore defcribed by Born *, interfperfed in a green 
matrix having a fcoriaceous furface, and which, as we are 
affured, fell from the heavens during a thunder-ftorm on the 
3d of July 1753. 
In the Hiftory of the Academy of Sciences for 1769, we 
find very remarkable accounts of three maffes which fell 
from the clouds during a thunder-ftorm. Thefe accounts 
were tran{mitted to the Academy by their correfpondents 
from Maine, Artois, and Cotantin, three places lying at a 
very great diftance from each other. The fame circum- 
ftances were remarked to have taken place in regard to thefe 
three maffes. They were all hot when firft found; they 
were of the fame compofition, as they contained fulphur and 
jron, and were covered with ahard cruft of that metal. They 
* Index Foffilium, vol, i, 
Z3 pros 
aN 
