VOL. XXX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 407 



Germany, Nov. 7) O. S. 1623, and in Austria also was heard to burst with an 

 explosion like thunder. Yet neither this, nor any of the other hitherto 

 described, seem to come up in any circumstance to this late appearance; of 

 which I am in hopes to give a satisfactory account, being enabled thereto by the 

 numerous accounts communicated to the Royal Society from most parts of the 

 kingdom. Some of the most perfect descriptions we have received are the 

 following. 



First, Our very worthy vice-president. Sir Hans Sloane, being abroad at that 

 time, happened to have his eyes turned towards it, at its very first eruption; of 

 which he gave the following account: that walking in the streets in London, at 

 about a quarter after 8 at night, he was surprised to see a sudden great light, 

 far exceeding that of the moon, which shone very bright. He turned to the 

 westward, where the light was, which he apprehended at first to be artificial 

 fire- works or rockets. The first place he observed it in was about the Pleiades 

 northerly, whence it moved after the manner of a falling star, but more slowly, 

 in a seeming direct line, descending a little beyond and below the stars in 

 Orion's Belt, then in the S. W. The long stream appeared to be branched 

 about the middle, and the meteor in its way turned pear-fashioned or tapering 

 upvt'ards. At the lower end it came at last to be larger and spherical, though 

 it was not so large as the full moon. Its colour was whitish, with an eye of 

 blue, of a most vivid dazzling lustre, which seemed in brightness very nearly 

 to resemble, if not surpass that of the body of the sun in a clear day. This 

 brightness obliged him to turn his eyes several times from it, as well when it 

 was a stream as when it was pear-fashioned and a globe. It seemed to move in 

 about half a minute, or less, about the length of 20°, and to go out about as 

 much above the horizon. There was left behind it, where it had passed, a 

 track of a cloudy or faint reddish yellow colour, such as red-hot iron or glowing 

 coals have, which continued more than a minute, seemed to sparkle, and kept 

 its place without falling. This track was interrupted, or had a chasm towards 

 its upper end, at about two-thirds of its length. He did not hear any noise it 

 -made ; but the place where the globe of light had been continued for some 

 time after it was extinct, of the same reddish yellow colour with the stream, 

 and at first some sparks seemed to issue from it, such as come from red-hot 

 iron beaten on an anvil. 



All the other accounts of the phenomenon, in London, agree in this, that 

 the splendour was little inferior to that of the sun ; that within doors the candles 

 gave no manner of light, and in the streets not only all the stars disappeared, 

 but the moon, then g days old, and high near the meridian, the sky being very 



