VOL XXXV.] VHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIUiNt.. IQS 



were innumerable, and shot upwards to the zenith with a motion not to be fol- 

 lowed by the eye. They had also another motion, which seemed to be side- 

 ways, their higher ends terminating sometimes in a sharp point, sometimes in 

 two or three points, they appeared from n. w. to n. e. but were brightest in the 

 north. Their colour was pale, like that of Jupiter through a telescope, but 

 not so bright. Most of them reached the zenith, where mixing with each 

 other, they whisked round, and formed an appearance like the curling flame of 

 a glass-house fire; they had a very irregular motion, sometimes turning inwards, 

 sometimes outwards, like the pendulum spring of a watch. This circular light 

 was the brightest, and seemed to occupy near 10° of the highest part of the 

 hemisphere; several strokes of light seemed to dart from it to the south; but 

 died before they got any considerable distance. In the west were two small 

 long clouds, which interposed before the light streams, which appeared above 

 the clouds, and between them, which convinced the observer that this light is 

 far above them. Fig. 6, pi. 4, is a scheme of the whole horizon, as it then 

 appeared. That bright star is Jupiter, whose place then was 1 7° in Aries, and 

 was about south-west, I guess about 20° high. Some of the brightest stars in 

 Taurus, Orion, and Aries, appeared south and south-east; but they are only 

 placed by guess. After 10 o'clock, the whirling light in the zenith appeared 

 of several colours, as, blue, green, yellow, and reddish. 



Concerning a Shock of an Earthquake, felt near Dartford in Kent, in August 

 \Tn. By the Rev. Edmund Barrel, Rector of Sutton. N° SQQ, p. 305. 



This earthquake was felt very sensibly at a farm on a hill, called Skeat Hill, 

 which is at the west end of Lullingstone park, about 8 miles south-west from 

 Dartford; and the same morning a piece of ground, in a meadow in Farning- 

 ham, about 5 miles south of Dartford, fell in, so as to leave a pit about 8 or 

 10 feet over, and near as deep; and being on the same level with the river, it 

 was, when seen that morning, filled with water, within 3 or 4 feet of the top; 

 though that spot of ground was supposed to have been as sound as any about it, 

 carts having often gone over that very place. 



On a Subterraneous Fire, observed in the County of Kent. Communicated by 

 Robert Nesbitt, M. D. N° 399, p. 307. 



This subterraneous fire was first noticed August 2, 1-26, in a marshy field, 



in the parish of Flinx Hill, about 10 or 12 miles soutn-west of Canterbury. 



It began on the side of a little brook near the water, and continued to burn 



along its bank, without spreading much for some days. Afterwards it appeared 



c c 2 



