METEORS. 345 



Maine, a cloud, in which a sharp explosion took place, 

 followed by a hissing noise, but without any flame ; that 

 some persons, about 10 miles from Luce, heard the same 

 sound : looking upwards, they perceived an opaque body, 

 describing a curve line in the air, and fall on a piece of 

 green turf near the high road ; that they immediately ran 

 to this place, where they found a kind of stone, half buried 

 in the earth, extremely hot, and weighing about T^lbs. 



December 18, 1795, several persons near Captain 

 Topham's house in Yorkshire, heard a loud noise in the 

 air, followed by a hissing sound, and soon after felt a 

 shock as if a heavy body had fallen to the ground at a 

 little distance from them ; in fact one of them saw a huge 

 stone fall to the earth at eight or nine yards from the 

 place where he stood ; it was seven or eight yards above 

 the ground when he first observed it ; in its fall it threw up 

 the mould on every side and buried itself twentyone inches 

 deep; the stone being raised was found to weigh 56 Ibs. 



March 17, 1798, a body burning very brightly, passed 

 over the vicinity of Villa Franche on the Saone, a little to 

 the east of Lyons, in France, accompanied with a hissing 

 noise and leaving a luminous track behind it. This phe- 

 nomenon exploded with a great noise about 1200 feet 

 from the ground; and one of the splinters, still luminous, 

 being observed to fall in a neighboring vineyard was 

 traced : at the spot a stone was found about a foot in dt- 

 ameter, which had penetrated twenty inches into the 

 ground. 



An account of a phenomenon of precisely the same de- 

 scription, was received from the East Indies, vouched by 

 authority particularly well adapted to procure general 

 respect. Mr Williams, F. R. S. residing in Bengal, 

 hearing of an explosion with a descent of stones, in the 

 province of Bahar, diligently inquired into the circum- 

 stances among the Europeans upon the spot. He learned 

 that on December 19, 1798, at eight o'clock in the even- 

 ing, a large fire ball or luminous meteor was seen at 

 Benares, and other parts of the country ; that it was 

 attended with a loud rumbling noise ; and that about the 

 same time the inhabitants of Krakhut, fourteen miles from 



VOL. i. NO. xiv. 31* 



