METEORIC STONES. 213 



same description, was received from the East Indies, vouched 

 by authority peculiarly well adapted to secure general 

 respect. Mr. AVilliarns, a member of the Eoyal Society of 

 London, residing in Bengal, having heard of an explosion, 

 accompanied by a descent of stones, in the province of Bahar,. 

 made all possible inquiries into the circumstances of the 

 phenomenon, among the Europeans who happened to be on 

 the spot. He learnt, that on the 19th December 1798, at 

 eight o'clock P.M., a luminous meteor, like a large ball of fire, 

 was seen at Benares, and in different parts of the country ; 

 that it was attended with a rumbling, loud noise ; and that, 

 about the same time, the inhabitants of Krakhut, fourteen 

 miles from Benares, saw the light, heard a loud thunder-clap, 

 and, immediately after, heard the noise of heavy bodies falling 

 in their neighbourhood. Next morning the fields were found 

 to have been turned up in different spots, which was easily 

 perceived, as the crop was not more than two or three inches 

 above the ground : and stones of different sizes, but appa- 

 rently of the same substances, were picked out of the moist 

 soil, generally from a depth of six inches. As the occurrence 

 took place in the night, and after the people had retired to 

 rest, no one observed the meteor explode, or the stones fall ; 

 but the watchman of an English gentleman who lived near 

 Krakhut, brought him one next morning, which he said had 

 fallen through the top of his hut, and buried itself in the 

 earthen floor. 



Several of the foregoing narratives mention the material 

 circumstance, of damage done to interposed objects by the 

 stones supposed to have fallen on the earth. In one instance, 

 still more distinct traces were left of their progress through 

 the air. During the explosion of a meteor, on the 20th 

 August 1789, near Bordeaux, a stone, about fifteen inches 

 diameter, broke through the roof of a cottage, and killed a 

 herdsman and some cattle. Part of the stone is now in the 

 museum of Mr. Greville, and the rest in that of Bordeaux. 

 It is singular that this fact is not mentioned by M. Izarn, 

 in his work on the subject of these stones, nor by Vauquelin, 



