Chap. 12.] Ignecus Meteors. 487 



jiearer, I faw many people gathered together, a little to 

 the fourhward, in the Savannah, to whom I rode up, 

 to inquire the caufe of their meeting : they were ad- 

 miring, as I found, the ground's being ftrangely broken 

 up and ploughed by a ball of fire ; which, as they faid, 

 fell down there, I obferved there were many holes in the 

 ground j one in the middle, of the bignefs of a man's 

 head, and five or fix fmaller roundabout it, of the big- 

 nefs of one's fift, and fo deep as not to be fathomed by 

 fuch implements as were at hand. It was obferved, 

 alfo, that all the green herbage was burnt up near 

 the holes ; and there continued a ftrong fmell of ful- 

 phur near the place for fome time after/ 



Ulloa gives an account of one of a fimilar kind at 

 Quito *. < About jnine at night/ fays he, f a globe of 

 fire appeared to rife from the fide of the mountain Pi- 

 chinca, and fo large, that it fpread a light over all the 

 part of the city facing that mountain. The houfe where 

 I lodged looking that way, I was furprifed with an ex- 

 traordinary light, darting through the crevices of the 

 window-mutters. On this appearance, and the buftle 

 of the people in the ftreet, I haftened to the window, 

 and came time enough to fee it, in the middle of its 

 career, which continued from weft to fouth, till I loft 

 fight of it, being intercepted by a mountain that lay 

 between me and it. Jt was round, and its apparent di- 

 ameter about a foot. I obferved it to rife from the 

 fides of Pichinca, although, to judge from its courfe, 

 it was behind that mountain where this congeries of 

 inflammable matter was kindled. In the firft half of 

 its vifible courie it emitted a prodigious effulgence, 

 then it began gradually to grow dim ; fo that, upon its 

 difappearing behind the intervening mountain, its light 

 was very faint.' 



* Ulloa, vol. i. p. 41. 



I i 4 ' Meteors 



