AEROLITES. 



221 



large fire-ball, which moved from S.E. to N.W., was seen at 

 one o'clock in the afternoon at Alen9on, Falaise, and Caen, 

 while the sky was quite clear. Some moments afterward 

 there was heard near Aigle (Dep. de L'Orne) an explosion in 

 a small, dark, almost motionless cloud, lasting for five or six 

 minutes, which was followed three or four times by a noise 

 like a cannon and a rattle of muskets, mixed with a number 

 of drums. At each explosion, parts of the vapor, of which 

 the cloud consisted, were removed. No appearance of light 

 was visible in this instance. There fell at the same time 

 upon an elliptical surface, whose major axis, from S.E. to 

 N.W., had a length of six miles, a great number of meteoric 

 stones, the largest of which weighed only 17^ pounds. They 

 were hot but not red,=^ smoked visibly, and, what is very strik- 



tailed fire-ball. The terrible noise in the meteoric cloud is here repre- 

 sented as the thunder accompanying the lightning (?). Anghiera him- 

 self received in Spain a fragment, the size of a fist {ex fiiustris disrup- 

 torum saxorum), and showed it to King Ferdinand the Catholic, in the 

 presence of the famous warrior Gonzalo de Cordova. His letter ends 

 with the words, " Mira super hisce prodigiis conscripta fanatice, physice, 

 theologice ad nos missa sunt ex Italia. Quid portendant, quomodoque 

 gignantur, tibi utraque servo, si aliquando ad nos veneris." " From 

 these prodigies Italy has furnished us with many a marvel of supersti- 

 tion, physic, and theology ; what they portend, and how they are to 

 come to pass, you will learn whenever you come to us." (Written 

 from Burgos to Fagiardus.) Cardanus {Opera, ed. Lugd., 1663, torn, 

 iii., lib. XV., cap. Ixxii., p. 279) aftirms, still more accurately, that 1200 

 aerolites fell among them, one of 120 pounds* weight, iron gray, of 

 great density. The noise is said to have lasted two hours : " ut mi- 

 rum sit, tamtam molera in acre sustineri potuisse ;" " it is marvelous 

 that such a mass could be supported in the air," He considered the 

 tailed fire-ball to be a comet, and errs in the date of the phenomenon 

 by a year : " Vidimus anno 1510." Cardanus was at that time nine or 

 ten years old. 



* Recently, on the occasion of the fall of aerolites at Braunau (July 

 14th, 1847), the fallen masses of stone were so hot, that after six hours 

 they could not be touched without causing a burn. I have already 

 treated {Asic Centrale, tom. i., p. 408) of the analogy which the Scyth- 

 ian myth of sacred gold presents with a fall of meteors. *'5.*As the 

 Scythians say, theirs is the most recent of all nations; and it arose in 

 the following manner. The first man that appeared in this country, 

 which was a wilderness, was named Targitaus : they say that the par- 

 ents of this Targitaus, in my opinion relating what is incredible — they 

 Bay, however, that they were Jupiter and a daughter of the River Bo- 

 rysthenes; that such was the origin of Targitaus; and that he had three 

 sons, who went by the names ot Lipoxais, Apoxais, and the youngest, 

 Colaxais; that during their reign a plow, a yoke, an ax, and a bowl of 

 golden workmanship dropping down from heaven, fell on the Scythian 

 territoiy; that the eldest, seeing them first, approached, intending to 

 take them up, but as he came near, the gold began to burn; when he 

 had retired the second went up, and it did the same again ; according 



