48 6 Extraordinary Tnftances of [Book V. 



maintains its ftation for any fpace of time, it is a beam ; 

 if the clouds feem to part, and emit a quantity of fire, 

 he terms it a cbafm * ; but this laft appear? t~ be, ftrictly 

 {peaking, an electrical phenomenon, indeed only a 

 ftrong and vivid flafh of lightning. 



Several inftance? of thefe meteors are recorded by 

 the fame author. Durin 6 t r .-^p.'-l- of gladiators 

 exhibited by Germanicus, or ( : ^em patted rapidly 

 by the faces of the fpedtators at noon- day. A meteor 

 of that fpecies which he calls a beam, he adds, was 

 feen when the Lacedemonians were defeated at fea, in 

 that memorable engagement which loft them the em- 

 pire of the fea f. He alfo mentions a fanguineous kind 

 of meteor, a flame as red as blood, which fell from hea- 

 ven about the 1 07 th Olympiad, when Philip of Mace- 

 don was concerting his wicked plan for enflaving the 

 republics of Greece J, He relates, that when he was 

 himfelf on the watch during the night in the Roman 

 camp, he was a fpe<ftator of a fimilar appearance a 

 number of refplendent lights fixed upon the palifadoes 

 of the camp, fimilar, he fays, to thofe which manners 

 fpeak of as attaching themfelves to the mafts and yards 

 of a fhip|j. 



In tropical climates thefe meteors are more common 

 and more ftupendous than in thefe more temperate re- 

 gions. * As I was riding in Jamaica,' fays Mr. Barb- 

 ham, ( one morning from my habitation, fituated about 

 three miles north-weft from St. Jago de la Vega, I faw 

 a ball of fire, appearing to me about the bignefs of a 

 bomb, fwiftly falling down with a great blaze. At 

 firft I thought it fell into the town j but when I came 



* Lampades, faces, bolides, trabes, and chaftna coe'.i. See Ptin. 

 Nat. Hift. 1. ii, c. 25, 26. 



f Plin. Nat. Hift. 1. ii. c. 25, 26. 

 J Ib. c. 27. U Ib. c. 37. 



nearer, 



