Account of a Fall of Meteoric Stones. 55 



within a few years, was preserved in the parish church 

 of Ensisheim. 



In 1762, two stones fell near Verona, one of which 

 weighed 200 and the other 300 pounds. Three or four 

 hundred persons were witnesses of the event. 



In 1790, on the 24th of July, a shower of stones fell 

 near Agen, in Guienne. About 9 or 10 o'clock at 

 night, a meteor was seen moving through the atmo- 

 sphere with very great velocity. A loud explosion was 

 soon heard, which was followed, after a short interval, by 

 a shower of stones, over a considerable extent of country. 



In April, 1802, the same thing happened at L'Aigle. 

 Biot, a member of the French National Institute, who 

 visited the place to ascertain the fact, writes to this effect: 

 Persons of all professions, manners, and opinions, eccle- 

 siastics, soldiers, and labourers, men, women, and chil- 

 dren, agree in referring the event to the same day, the 

 same hour, and the same minute. They say they saw 

 the stones descending along the roofs of the houses, 

 break the branches of the trees, and rebound after they 

 fell upon the pavement. They say they saw the earth 

 smoke around the largest of them, and that the stones 

 were still hot after they had taken them in their hands. 

 The mineralogical collections, formed on the spot with 

 the greatest care, contained nothing of the kind. On 

 a sudden, and only since the time of the meteor, these 

 stones have been found, and within a certain extent. 



