Obfervations on Fire Balls. J I 



-that the movement of others *, the courfe of which, as 

 might be conjectured from their long train, was not in the 

 direction of the eye, muff, have been much (lower. Some 

 appear alfo, unlefs thefe be refufed a place here, to be pecu- 

 liar to one part of the heavens f. 



6. They proceed from, as well as towards, all points of the 

 compafs. The greater part of them, however, have beyond 

 all difpute appeared in the northern or foulhern parts of the 

 horizon ; but no general conclufion, in regard to their con- 

 nection with the northern % or fouthern lights, can be drawn 

 from this circumftance, though fome obfervations made in 

 Sweden § feem to favour fuch an hypothefis. 



7. They do not always move according to the direction of 

 the wind. The third obferved by Ulloa makes, perhaps ac- 

 cidentally, an exception ; and the fpindle-fhaped meteor 

 feen by M. Lichtenberg, at Gottingen, on the 12th of 

 November ||, was towards the S. S. E. the then direction of 

 the wind, which however near the earth was very little felt. 

 Befides, their velocity was feldom or never proportioned to 

 that of the wind ; as during the moft violent itorm it does 

 not move above 100 feet per fecond. When fnch meteors 

 have appeared, it has been generally calm ; but fome of 

 them were followed by wind % and Forfter obferved that 

 after each fire-ball which he faw a-violent wind took place. 



' Breflauer Sammlungen, iv. May 171S, p. 1077 ; Philofoph. Tranf- 

 a£tions, vol. xliii. No. 477, p. 57.4; and Gothaifches Magazin, vol. iv. 

 part 2. p. 164. 



f Hof in A£ta Litteraria ct Scicnt. Sueciae, an. 1734, P- 7 8 5 an( I De 

 Genffance in Hiftoire dc l'Acad. des Sciences. Paris 1738. p. 36. 



J Bergman's Phyfic. Belchreibung der erdkugel, vol. i'i. p. 78. Bcrn- 

 ftoff in Rozier's Journal de Phyfiquc, 1784, p. x 1 5 i and Blagden in the 

 Philofoph. Tranfaftions for 1784, p. 229. 



§ Hof and Celfius in Acta Litteraria et Scicnt. SueciaJ, an. 1734, P« 7& 

 and 8 1. Gifler in Schwcdifchc Abhandhingen, vol. xxv. p. 65. 



|| Hannbvrifthes Magazin, 1791, p. 1626. 



fl Adta Litteraria Succia:, 1734, p. 7S; and Chladni in Gothajfches 

 Magazin, vol. xi. part 2 p. 112. 



F4 8, They 



