yo Obfervations on Fire Balls. 



June and September. It cannot, therefore, be faid that, like 

 ftorms, they appear more frequently at one time of the year 

 than another, 



3. At every period of the day. The hour when thefe 

 phenomena took place is not indeed given by every obferver, 

 but obfervations have been made both by night and by day. 

 The greater part, however, have been made in the evening, 

 when, being more perceptible to the eye, it was lefs poflible 

 for them to efcape notice. 



4. They appear, for the moft part, when the fky is ferene. 

 This remark is exprefsly made in regard to 26 of the above 

 mentioned 50 ; and in regard to the reft it is to be concluded 

 from concomitant circumftances, fuch as their height, &c. 

 The heavens were often covered only with a pale mift*, and 

 fome few were feen to proceed from light clouds f, which 

 gives us reafon to fuppofe that they came from a greater 

 height than thefe clouds. 



5. Moft of them were feen to move with a very rapid 

 motion, and of thofe on the velocity of which obfervations 

 have been made, that is faid to have moved quickeft which 

 was feen in the month of November 1758, and which, ac- 

 cording to the calculation of Sir John Pringle J, pafled over 

 thirty Englifh or feven German miles in one fecond ; a ve- 

 locity greater by 3! miles in a fecond, than that of the 

 motion of the earth in its orbit. The one faid to have 

 moved flowed is that which was feen by Balbus at Bologna, 

 in the month of March I7I9§, and which proceeded, ac- 

 cording to his reckoning, at about 1530 feet or 0,067 of a 

 German mile in one fecond. But there is reafon to conclude 



* Breflauer Sammlungen von Natur-und MeJicin-Gefchichten. III. 

 Jan. 1716, p. 544. Hanov. Magazin 1 79T, p. 162S. 



f Breflauer Sammlungen xxix. Aug. 1724, p. 169. Compare Lichtcn- 

 bergs Gothaifches Magazin, vol. iii. p;r 2. p. 92 ; vol. iv. part 2, p. 1(4. 



t Philofoph. Tranfaftions, vol. li. part 1. p. 218. 



§ De Bonon. Scient. Inftit. Comment, vol. i. p. 285, 



;hat 



