M E T E O R I T E. 



115 



Matjde- 



fcurg, &C. 



A/riem. 



er regarded as a prodigy. In China, certain stone* of 

 k or violet colour arc called thitndrr-haUlutt, Jtir- 

 '.'.immrrs, &c. according to their forms ; and, al- 

 though they may have been wantonly multiplied, seme 

 df them are, probably, of meteoric origin. Ma-louan. 

 tin, who registers the occurrences of falling stones in 

 China, supposes that these thunder-stone* are identical 

 with fall of red sand, from a red sky, at 



Bagdad. QuatremZrr.- -tone fell near Augsburg, 



!ui Stadias, and others. Bit- 



956 an-1 !l7 r -'. I'latina, in his Life of Pope John XIII. e- 

 oumerates, among the prodigies of the time*, the descent 

 of a very large stone during a furious tempest of wind 

 ami rain. !/;)S. Cosous and Spangenberg relate, that 

 two large stones fell with an explo-iun like t, 

 one of them alighting in the town of Magdeburg, and 

 the other in the open country near the Elbe. 1009. 

 Avicenna affirms, that when in Djordjan, (misrepresent- 

 ed Lurgea and Cordova,) he saw a sulphureous kind of 

 (tone fall from the atmosphere. Between the 2-. 

 July and the 31st of August, 104 1, stones fell in A tri- 

 es. /' Raw snow fell in Armenia. Mo/A. 

 A burning body fell into the Lake of 

 Van, in Armenia, and made its water* blood-red, while 

 the earth was cleft in several places, probably with 

 .^.^ stone*. Id. 1 1 12. Stone* or iron fell near Aquileia. 

 ,5 or 1136. Spangenberg and other* in- 

 form us, that a stone as large as the human head wa* 

 jiitated from the air at Oldisleben in Thuringia. 

 rge Fabricius, in the First Book of the Ilis- 

 :iia, apprise* u* of a shower of iron in that 

 count 1 1 US. Stones fell near Pan*. 



i. Spangenberg an 



vander again mark the descent of stone* in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Quedlinburg, Ballenstaedt, aad Blankra- 

 ixony 1 hiitcenth a .'.nry. A (tone fell at 

 r. between 1851 and 

 1363, Stunt* fell at N' < An. 



itone fell at Alexai De Sacy. 

 Alcaaa4rla. Oct. 1, 1304, Kranti, in his Account of Saxony, and 



several of the German Chroniclers, concur in stating, 

 that many stones fell near t'rtrdiand or l'tedcla*d, and 

 that they did great damage to the fields. But the 

 :ml of these author*, who probably copied from 

 one another, U not sufficiently particularized, a* there 

 are many small towns and village* of that name. Span- 

 genberg more pointedly mentions FriidUrg, near tlie 

 Saale. 1305. Burning stone* fell in the con i 

 Vandals. Burner, dr 



fell in Moruhia and Dakhalu. 



veral stone* were observed to fall from the clouds in 



A mas* of iron fell in 

 of Oldenburg. Sitbrand, Meyer. M*y 2(>, 

 1379- Stone* fell at Mmden, in Hanover. Lerbd*t. 



1 U'i. Hed rain in Bohemia. Spangenberg. 



1433. According to Proust, the chemist, stones of a 

 spongy texture were observed to fall near Roa, at no 

 great distance from Burgos, in Spain ; and, in support 

 of his assertion, he quotes the ensuing extract of a let- 

 ter from the Bachelor Cibdar 



" King Don Juan and hi* court being engaged in a 

 hunting party, under the village of Roa, the sun was 

 obscured by white clouds, ami they saw descending 

 from the air bodies which resembled grey and blackish 

 stones, and of such considerable ^'""T^Tt*. u to ex- 

 cite the greatest astonishment 



phenomenon continued during an hour, after 

 which the sun re spy tared, and the falconer*, mounted 

 on their horvi, immediately repaired to the spot, which 

 wa* not half a league distant. They reported to the 



! . 



w \ 11 

 \V uru- 

 tnirg. 



ft* 



i 



Y rl.' rt. 



Mind**. 



l; n i. 



king, that the field on which these stones lay, was so Meicoriic. 

 thickly strewed with them, of all sizes, as completely ' ~~ J 

 to conceal the soil. 



" The king was desirous of visiting the scene, but 

 hit courtiers restrained him, by representing, that the 

 place which heaven had selected for the theatre of iu 

 operation! might be unsafe, and that it would be more 

 tnch one of his suite. Gomes Bravo, 

 Captain of his Guards volunteered his services, and 

 brought with him four of these stones to Roa, whither 

 the king had now retired. They were of a considera- 

 ble size, some round, and at big as a mortar, others 

 shaped like pillows or half fanega measures: but the 

 circumstance which created most astonishment, was 

 thiir extreme levity, for the largest did not weigh half 

 a pound. They were of such a delicate texture, that 

 they resembled sea-froth condensed more than any 

 thing else. You might strike your hand against them, 



u any apprehension i , cuntutiun, pain, or the 

 least mark." 



In respect of specific gravity, these stones must have 

 differed very materially from the heavier specimens of 

 recent date. From the fragility of their texture 

 trace of their existence probably now remains ; but the 

 narrative, which bears all the marks of a genuine do- 

 cument, may be regarded u, in some measure, corro- 

 borative of the fall of the tpongy masses, noticed by 

 I'liny, and of the /krry shower* of that naturalist In 

 the present instance^ too, no mention is made of any lu- 



- appearance or explosion, and it is not even taid 

 that the masse* felt hot when first touched. 



Some time, in the same century, a stone, and a maw 

 like coagulated blood, cconi|>-ii 1 l>y a Jiffy dragon, 

 (meteor,) fell near Lucerne. (>i/ 1480. Stone* fell in Lucerne. 

 Saxony and Bohemia. Philot. M y. 1 tyi. A ctooefell siooy, 

 near Crema. Simanriia. 



Uy2. The far-famed stone of Ensia- 

 heim has exercised the talents of contemporaneous wri- 

 ter*f both in prose and verse. Professor Batenschoen. 

 of the central school of Colmar. first directed the atten- 

 tion of naturalists to some of the > M chronic-leu, which 

 record the circumstances of it* fall with much simpli- 

 city, and in the true spirit <. The note which 

 accompanied the stone, when it was suspended in the 

 church of F.niheim, may be rendi 



" In the ye.. n Wi-dm-d .1 . 



which was M.irtininas eve, tlie 7th o!' Nm ( i : , r, tiiiiv 

 !MJ.|H; ,,| ., ngular rairacU ; i,.r. between 11 o'clock 

 and noon, there was a loud peal of thunder, and 

 longed confused noUe, which was heard to a great dis- 

 tance, and there foil from the air, in the jur 

 Enaiahfini, a atone which wei. Itlu- 



confused noise was, moreen rr, nun !i . 



Then a child aaw it vtrike on . n the up- 



per jurisdiction, towards the Rhin< 



t of Gisgand, which was *o 

 did it no harm, except ; 

 tlieti they enlivt-yeit .at spot, n 



were broken from it, which the IMI-," 



therefore, caux-d it t.. l>e placed in the t hurch, 

 with thi- intention of suspending it, as a miracle ; and 

 there came here many people to see this stone. So 

 there were remarkable conversations about this stone, 

 but the learned said that tin \ knew not what it v;i, 

 t'cir it was beyond the ordinary course of nature that 

 such a large stone should smite the earth to the depth 

 of a man's stature, which every body explained to be 

 the will of God that it should be found, ,,nd the noise 

 of it wa heard at Lucerne, at Villing, and in many other 

 places, so loud, that it was believed noose* had been 



Inn, ne.i' 

 ith wheat, and 

 re, and 



