V^OL. LII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 515 



or volley of small arms, which seemed to come from the west. This report was 

 followed by a rumbling noise, which most took for the roar of an earthquake; 

 and when it had lasted about a minute, there was another explosion like that of 

 a cannon; and about as long after a third; the roaring noise in the mean time 

 increasing, so as to fill the air all around. After this third explosion, the noise 

 gradually abated, seeming to go off toward the south-east; having lasted in the 

 whole, as was judged, about 5"^. These noises were heard as far north as Rox- 

 bury and Boston : east, a league beyond Cape Cod; south, at Martha's Vineyard 

 and Rhode Island; and west at Providence and Mendon; filling a circle of about 

 80 miles in diameter, the centre of which was at Bridgewater or near it. 



The meteor which produced these noises, was not seen near the centre of this 

 circle, but only near the circumference. A creditable person at Roxbury, a 

 town adjoining on Boston, informed Mr. W. that about 10 o'clock that morning 

 he saw in the air a ball of fire, about 4 or 5 inches in diameter, drawing a train 

 of light after it. The ball was of a white brightness, exceeding that of the sun. 

 Though the sun then shone out clear, this fire-ball was bright enough to cast a 

 shade, by which he first perceived it in the south-east, passing below the sun. 

 For he was standing with his back toward that and the sun ; but this shade put 

 him on turning round to discover what might be the cause of it. He says the 

 ball moved parallel to the horizon from the north-east toward the south-west, 

 not above half so fast as shooting stars generally do, and disappeared while he 

 was looking on it; and that about 4 or 5^ after he heard a kind of rumbling 

 noise, somewhat like that of an earthquake ; which was also heard by many 

 others in Roxbury. From a vessel about a league south-west from Cape Cod, 

 and from Martha's Vineyard, he received like accounts of a bright ball in the 

 heavens, sufficient to ascertain the reality of the meteor, but not to determine 

 its height and course. 



Mr. W. also mentions one of the most extraordinary whirlwinds ever known 

 in that country. The morning of July 10 at Cambridge was fair and hot, with 

 a brisk gale at south-west. The afternoon was cloudy. About 5 it began to 

 rain, and thundered once. At Leicester, 40 miles westward, about 5 o'clock the 

 sky looked strangely ; clouds from the south-west and north-west seemed to rush 

 together very swiftly, and immediately on their meeting commenced a circular 

 motion; presently after which a terrible noise was heard. The whirlwind passed 

 along from south-west to north-west. Its first effects were discernible on a hill, 

 where several trees were thrown down at considerable distances from each other. 

 In this manner it proceeded the distance of 6 miles with the most destructive 

 violence, tearing up and scattering about the trees, stones, fences, and every' 

 thing else in its way, forming a continued lane of ruins, of a few rods wide. 

 It met with only one dwelling house in its course, that of one David Lynde, 



3u2 



