116 COSMOS. 



We can ascertain by measurement the enormous, wonder* 

 fill, and wholly planetary velocity of shooting stars, fire-balls, 

 and meteoric stones, and we can gain a knowledge of wdiat is 

 the general and uniform character of the phenomenon, but 

 not of the genetically cosmical process and the results of the 

 metamorphoses. If meteoric stones while revolving in space 

 are already consolidated into dense masses,* less dense, how 



nius even ventured to deride the geognostic myth of the blocks and 

 stones. The Lygian fiekl of stones w^as, however, very naturally and 

 well described by the ancients. The district is now known as La Crau. 

 (See Guerin, Mesures Baromitriques dans les Alpes, ei M6t6orologie 

 d' Avignon, 1829, chap, xii., p. 115.) 



* The specific weight of aerolites varies from 1-9 (Alais) to 4-3 

 (Tabor). Their general density may be set down as 3, water being 1. 

 As to what has been said in the text of the actual diameters of fire-balls, 

 we must remark, that the numbers have been taken from the few 

 measurements that can be relied upon as correct. These give for the 

 fire-ball of Weston, Connecticut (14th December, 1807), only 500; for 

 that observed by Le Roi (10th July, 1771) about 1000, and for that 

 estimated by Sir Chaiies Blagden (18th January, 1783) 2600 feet in 

 diameter. Brandes {Unterhaltungen, bd. i., s. 42) ascribes a diameter 

 varying from 80 to 120 feet to shooting stars, and a luminous train ex- 

 tending from 12 to 16 miles. There are, however, ample optical caus- 

 es for supposing that the apparent diameter of fire-balls and shooting 

 stars has been very much overrated. The volume of the largest fiie- 

 ball yet observed can not be compared with that rf Ceres, estimating 

 this planet to have a diameter of only 70 English miles. (See the 

 generally so exact and admirable treatise, i)n the Connection of the 

 Physical Sciences, 1835, p. 411.) With the view of elucidating what 

 has been stated in the text regarding the large aerolite that fell into 

 the bed of the River Narni, but has not again been found, I will give 

 the passage made known by Pertz, from the Chronicon Benedicti, Mon- 

 achi Sancti Andrece in Monte Soracte, a MS. belonging to the tenth 

 century, and preserved in the Chigi Library at Rome. The barbarous 

 Latin of that age has been left unchanged. ^' Anno 921, temporibvs 

 domini Johannis Decimi pape, in anno pontificates illius 7 visa sunt sig- 

 na. Nam juxta tcrbem Romam lapides plurimi de cczlo cadere visi sunt. 

 In clvitate qvce vocatur Narnia tarn diri ac tetri, ut nihil aliiid credai-ur,- 

 qnam de infernalibns locis deducti essent. Nam ita ex illis lapidibus 

 lums omnium Tnaximus est, ut d'xidens in flumen Narnvs, ad mejisuram 

 iiuiiis ctibiti super aquas flicminif usque hodie videretur. Nam et ignites 

 faculce de ccelo plurimce omnibus in hac civitate Romani populi vises sunt, 

 ita ut pene terra canting eret. Alice cadentes-^'' &c, (Pertz, Monum. 

 Germ. Hist. Scriptores, t. iii., p. 715.) On the aerolites of iEgos Pota- 

 mos, which fell, accoi-ding to the Parian Chronicle, in the 78 1 Olym- 

 piad, see Bockh, Corp. Inscr. Graec, t. ii,, p. 302, 320, 340; also Aris- 

 tot., Meteor., i., 7 (Ideler's Comm., t. i., p. 404-407) ; Stob., Eel. Phys., 

 i., 25, p. 508 (Heeren); Plut., Lys., c. 12; Diog. Laert., ii., 10; and 

 see, also, subsequent notes in this work. According to a Mongolian 

 tradition, a black fragment ol a rock, forty feet in height, fell from 

 heaven on a plain near the sou :ce of the Great Yellow River in West- 

 ern China, (Abel Remusa% in Lam6therie, Jour, de Phys., 1819. Mai 

 p. 264.) 



