Obfervations on Fire Balls. 69 



probability, as alluding to the fame kind, and in mod cafes 

 juft as they were given by the obfervers, without paying at- 

 tention to any particular mode of explanation, in order to 

 aflift thofewhofe attention is occupied with the origin and 

 nature of thefe bodies, to examine the old and new hypo- 

 thefes formed refpe&ing them, or to fupport future ones, if 

 neceffary. Thefe meteors appear, then, 



1. In every climate. Of fifty obfervations with which I 

 am acquainted, three were made immediately under the equa- 

 tor* ; three in a fouthern f, and 44 in a northern latitude : 

 and this difproportion arifes merely from the greater number 

 of accounts brought to us from the latter, and the greater at- 

 tention of the obfervers ; for we are affined by Forfter, that 

 he faw feveral fire-balls in the fouth feas J. 



3. At every feafon of the year. I am acquainted with ob- 

 fervations made in every month except September; and of 

 thefe feveral were made, but between the 45th and 55th 

 degree of northern latitude, in all the months except April, 



fizeofabomb, defcend towards the earth ; but though the ground was 

 dug up around the place where it feemed to fall, nothing could be per- 

 ceived except burnt grafs and a fulphureous fmell. A violent ftorm, it is 

 faid, had taken place a little before, which makes it highly probable that 

 this phenomenon was nothing elfe than lightning, efpecially as Reimarus 

 relates, that lightning has been feen to fall upon houles and conductors in 

 a globular form, and that a fulphureous fmtll has been afierwards per- 

 ceived : fee Reimarus 110m Bliz, Hamburg 1794, p. 51, 155, 319. An 

 obfervation of two balls proceeding towards each other before a thunder 

 cloud, made by Hartman, in July 1758, feems to be of the like kind. See 

 Vcrwandfcbaft der Elektrijbben Kraft mil den Lufterfcheinungen, Hanover 

 1759, p. 237; and alfo a fhifh of lightning mentioned by Reimarus, p. 12. 

 Other inftances of the two phenomena being confounded, are noticed by 

 Dr. Chladni in his work, p. 2. 



L'lloa's Voyage to South America. Lond. 1760. Vol. i. p. 354, and 

 vol. ii. p. zt> . 



f Journal des'Obfervations Phyfiques, Mathematiqucs ct Botaniqucs, 

 p;r F.'mis Feuillc. Paris 1714. Vol. i. p. 116, 119. and vol. iii. p. 92. 



\ Forfttr's Obfervations, made during a voyage wind the world, oa 

 Phyfical Geography, Jjc, p. 119. 



r 3 Jan* 



