as*! PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIOJlS. [aNNO ]75g. 



the body for a little space, ainl then it burst like gunpowder, though without 

 noise, and fell down in sparks of fire, while the body kept on its course ; but 

 which he immediately lost sight of, by a house of 2 stories high that int ervened 

 Dr. Gilchrist added, * that a young lady of his acquaintance, happening to be in 

 the street near the same place, saw the meteor likewise and described it as a ball 

 of fire, about the size of the sun, with a tail ; and the length of the whole as 

 longer than one's arm. She said it was almost over her head, higher than the 

 town steeple ; that it burst without noise, and was entirely dissipated into sparks 

 of fire, which fell down, and, as she thought, almost reached the tops of the 

 houses.' 



14. The Rev. Wm. Turnbull, minister of Abbotrule (a parish about 46 

 miles N. by e. of Carlisle, 44 miles n. e. by e. of Dumfries, and 6 miles s. w. 

 by w. of Jedburgh, in the shire of Roxburgh,) stated, that about Q at night, 

 sitting in his parlour, which had a south-west window, he very distinctly saw a 

 light, which he took for a flaj^h of lightning ; but was surprized with the differ- 

 ence of its colour, being whiter, and giving a clearer view of every thing in the 

 room, than what he could have expected fi-om common lightning ; that, how- 

 ever, he waited for a clap of thunder, and accordingly, at the end of 5 or 6 

 minutes, he heard a very great explosion, not indeed so like thunder, as the 

 crashing noise of the fall of a house ; and being -persuaded that this was really 

 the case, and that the gabel-end of his own house, farthest from the room he 

 sat in, with the offices, had fallen, he ran out, but found no damage done, nor 

 saw any clouds, it being clear star-light.' 



15. Mr. Walter Pringle, sheriflT-depute of the shire of Roxburgh, stated that 

 a servant of the house, where he happened to be that night (about 20 miles 

 s. s. E. of Edinburgh, and as far n. n. w. of Abbotrule,) came in about 9, and 

 told him there had been some thunder and lightning ; which he thought very 

 improba;ble, as he had been out but a few minutes before, and had not seen a 

 cloud in the sky.' Mr. Pringle added, that the Rev. John Smith, of Jedburgh, 

 had written to him as follows : ' I am surprized, that, in all the accounts given 

 of the meteor, one remarkable circumstance is omitted, namely, the horrid 

 crack which I heard, being then on the confines of Cumberland, near Stone- 

 garthside (about 15 miles n. by e. of Carlisle:) it was much louder than the 

 report of any heavy cannon, and continued about 7 or 8 seconds. The people 

 thought it a peal of thunder ; but this, I imagined, could not be the case, as 

 the sky was not clouded. I did not see the meteor myself, being then witiiin 

 doors. 



16. In another letter, Mr. Pringle said, that he had conversed with one 

 James Turnbull, a farmer at Ancram, a village about 3 miles north-west of 

 J^burgh, who had seen the meteor and heard the explosion. He said that. 



