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the Professor are here quoted at some length ; as our author proposes 

 to draw a comparison between their results, and those he deduces 

 from his own investigation. 



The instances next in succession, and which are the principal 

 objects of this paper, are : 1 . The several stones, about twelve in 

 number, which in the year 1794 were seen by several persons falling 

 from the clouds near Sienna, in the midst of a violent thunder-storm, 

 and eighteen hours after an enormous eruption of Mount Vesuvius. 

 As an ample account of this extraordinary phenomenon is printed 

 in the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1795, it will be need- 

 less to dwell here any longer upon it, than merely to observe that 

 these stones are of a quality not found in any part of the Siennese 

 territory; and that as to their being of volcanic origin, it is scarce 

 credible that they could have been carried in the air to a distance 

 of at least two hundred and fifty miles. 2. The second instance is 

 that of the stone, weighing no less than fifty-six pounds, which, ac- 

 cording to the attestation of several persons who profess themselves 

 eye-witnesses, fell on the 13th of December, 1795, near Wold Cot- 

 tage in Yorkshire, and was, when extracted from the depth of about 

 eighteen inches in the earth, still warm, and smoking. Here too no 

 similar stone is to be met with in any part of that county. The 

 weather was mild and hazy, but there was no thunder or lightning 

 the whole day. 3. The third instance, which comes perhaps better 

 authenticated than the two preceding ones, is that of a number of 

 stones which, after the explosion of a meteor on the 1 9th of December, 

 1798, fell about eighteen miles from Benares, in the East Indies. 

 The account of this phenomenon is given in a very circumstantial 

 manner by John Lloyd Williams, Esq. F.R.S. At the time when the 

 meteor appeared, the sky was perfectly serene, nor had the smallest 

 vestige of a cloud been seen for several days before and after the 

 phenomenon. The largest of the stones, of which Mr. Williams 

 had seen eight, weighed 21b. 12oz. There are no volcanoes on the 

 Continent of India, nor have any stones yet been met with in that 

 part of the world which bear the smallest resemblance to those here 

 described. Lastly, the fourth instance occurs in the collection of 

 Baron Born, now in the possession of the Right Hon. Charles Gre- 

 ville*. In Born's catalogue the specimen here mentioned is described 

 as a mass of iron found near Tabor in Bohemia; and in a note it is 

 observed that credulous people assert it to have fallen from heaven 

 on the 3rd of July, 1753 : in fact, on comparing it with the Sienna 

 and Yorkshire stones, there appeared sufficient reason to excite a 

 suspicion of its being of the same nature. 



We here anticipate the account given in the latter part of the 

 paper of the two enormous masses of a substance which has been 

 considered as native iron, the one weighing about 15 tons, observed 

 in South America, and described by Don Rubin de Celis, whose 

 account is inserted in the Philosophical Transactions for the year 



* Since purchased by Government, and deposited in the British Museum. 



