CHAP. 7- S. OF ELECTRICITY. 223 



During Thunderstorms however Meteors oc- 

 casionally come down like Fireballs which 

 sometimes seem very like those described 



du Monde, seem rather of this opinion. The altitude of 

 what are called Falling Stars, above the Earth's surface, has 

 never been well ascertained, though it might easily be done 

 by geometrical observation ; at least, in many cases, where 

 the Meteor could be identified, as seen in different places. 

 They are not seen below clouds ; and, indeed, none, except 

 the larger and brilliant kind, are usually observed when there 

 are many clouds about : but this may arise from the state of the 

 atmosphere necessary to their production being incompatible 

 with the existence of much cloud. M. De Luc mentioned 

 to me his having seen them from the top of high mountains, 

 and that they then appeared at a very great distance. From 

 observations which I have made, they certainly vary in the 

 height, as well as the length, of their course. It is not 

 impossible, but that if Meteorolites were observed to fall at 

 night, they might be always found to be accompanied by 

 some fiery phaenomenon of this kind. The almost horizontal 

 motion of some large Meteors, would be no objection to this 

 hypothesis, if they always moved from E. to W. or nearly 

 so ; as, when they came into the sphere of the Earth's attrac- 

 tion, their motion might be spent, and they would then 

 receive an apparent motion compounded of the opposite of the 

 Earth's rotatory motion, and the attraction to the centre. An 

 analysis of several meteoric stones may be found in Sowerby's 

 Brit. Mineral, vol. ii. p. 18. A catalogue of many of them, 

 and of the places where they fell, was made and published in 

 France; there are also many accounts of them in several 

 numbers of the Philosophical Magazine. 



