40 PHILOSOPHY OF STORMS. 



ing extract: "On the 6th of July, 1822, at thirty-five min- 

 utes past one o'clock, P. M., in the plain of Ossonville, six 

 leagues W. S. W. of St. Omer, and six leagues south east 

 of Boulogne, clouds were seen coming from different direc- 

 tions, and uniting together rapidly over the plain; they 

 soon formed but one, which covered the horizon. An in- 

 stant after, they saw descend from this cloud a thick vapor, 

 having the bluish color of sulphur in combustion; it formed 

 an inverted cone, whose base was in the cloud. After it 

 passed from that place, it was discovered that it had made 

 an excavation in the earth, in the form of a basin, twenty 

 or twenty-five feet in circumference, and three or four feet 

 deep in the middle. After tearing down a barn, and some 

 trees, it passed on, a distance of two leagues, without touch- 

 ing the earth, carrying with it large branches of trees, 

 which it threw out to the right and left with much noise. 

 Having then arrived at an elevated wood, it tore off the 

 tops of many oaks, and carried them over the village of 

 Vendome, situated at the foot of the hill, on the east side of 

 the forest. In this commune, it tore up by the roots a large 

 sycamore, and carried it six hundred yards. The meteor, 

 during its whole course, was like a bullet, which strikes 

 the earth, and rebounds, tearing up the earth in places, and 

 from time to time throwing out from its centre globes of fire, 

 and globes of sulphurous vapors, and branches of trees. In 

 the village of Witcanestre, of forty houses, thirty-two were 

 prostrated, with their walls all thrown outwards, and at 

 Lambre, eighteen, chiefly built of bricks, were sapped to 

 their foundations in the same extraordinary manner." 

 Nothing is said of either hail or rain accompanying this 

 meteor. 



Another spout, almost exactly similar to this in violence, 

 took place near Treves, on the afternoon of the 25th of 

 June, 1829. Suddenly, from the middle of a black cloud, 

 about 20 above the horizon, a luminous mass began to 



