488 Inflances of [Book V. 



e Meteors of this kind are very frequently feen be- 

 tween the tropics ; but they fometimes, alfo, vifit the 

 more teinperate regions of Europe. We have the de- 

 fcription of a very extraordinary one, given us by 

 Montanari, that ferves to Ihew to what great heights, 

 in our atmofphere, thefe vapours are found to afcend. 

 In the year 1676, a great globe of fire was feen at Bo- 

 nonia, in Italy, about three quarters of an hour after 

 fun-fet. It pafled weftward, with a moft rapid courfe, 

 and at the rate of not lefs than a hundred and fixty 

 miles in a minute, which is much fwifcer than the force 

 of a cannon ball, and at laft flood over the Adriatic 

 fea. In its courfe it croffed over all Italy; and, by 

 computation, it could not have been lefs than thirty- 

 eight miles above the furface of the earth. In the 

 whole line of its courfe, wherever it approached, the 

 inhabitants below could diftin&ly hear it, with a hifllng 

 noife, refembling that of a fire-work. Having patted 

 away to lea, towards Corfica, it was heard at laft to go 

 off with a moft violent explofion, much louder than 

 that of a cannon ; and, immediately after, another noife 

 was heard like the rattling of a great cart upon a ftony 

 pavement, which was, probably, nothing more than the 

 echo of the former found. Its magnitude, when at 

 Bononia, appeared twice as long as the moon one way, 

 'and as broad the other j fo that, confidering its height, 

 it could not have been lefs than a mile long and half a 

 mile broad *. 



Two of thefe meteors appeared in this country in 

 the year 1783, of which a moft particular and truly 

 philofophical account, by Dr. Blagden, is publrflied in 

 the Philofophical Tranfaftions of the following year; 

 and as his defcription will apply to many phenomena 

 of the kind, I cannot take any better method to eluci- 



* Goldfmith'i Hid. Earth, Vol. I. p. 382. 



date 



