Obfervations on Fire- Balls. ; 343 
year 1559, and are preferved in the treafury at Vienna. On 
the 26th of July 1581, between the hours of one and two 
in the afternoon, a {tone 39 pounds in weight, of a blue and 
brownifh colour, and which ftruck fire with tteel, fell from 
the clouds in Thuringia, with an explofion which {hook the 
earth, and accompanied by the appearance of a fmall light 
cloud, that could have been nothing but a fire-ball, the 
heavens at that time being in other refpects ferene. ‘This 
ftone, which funk to a confiderable depth in the ground,’ 
made the earth fly up to twice the height of a man, and was 
fo hot that no perfon could touch it, We are told that it 
was carried to Drefden. On the 6th of March 16365, while 
the heavens were perfectly ferene, a large ftone fell, with a 
joud crafh between Sagan and the village of Dubrow in Si- 
lefia. It had internally the appearance of a mineral, could 
be eafily rubbed to powder, was covered on the outfide with 
a craft, and feemed as if burnt by fire. On the 16th of 
March 1698, a black ftone fell from the atmofphere with. 
various explofions, and was tranfmiteed with an account of 
the circumftance to the library at Berne. This {tone is men- 
tioned by Scheuchzer in his Natural Hiftory of Swiffer- 
land *, D. Roft relates, in the Breflaw Colleétion refpecting 
Natural Hiftory ¢, that at two o’clock in the afternoon on the 
22d of July 1723, the weather being then ferene, there was 
feen a {mall cloud (probably a fire-ball), and at the fame 
time feveral large and {mall {tones fell from the heavens, ac~ 
companied by loud explofions, but without any lightning. 
Thefe ftones, which were black on the outfide, had inter- 
nally the appearance of metal, and exhaled a ftrong fmell of 
fulphur. It is worthy of remark, that the iron mals men- 
tioned by Pallas, which has no affinity with any of the 
known foffils, but which correfponds in many refpects with 
fume of the before-mentioned mafles, and particularly that 
which fell at Agram, was confidered by the inhabitants of 
Siberia, where it was found, as a facred relic dropped from 
* P. IL. ad ann. 1726, p. 75. $ Page qq. 
Z4 heavens 
