— fome late fiery Meteors. es, 
they are pafling, and to which the ftreams are fuppofed to 
reach. A fimilar caufe may occation the apparent explofion, 
the opening of more channels giving new vent and motion to 
the electric fluid. May not the deviation and explofion which 
appear to have taken place iu the fire-ball of the 18th of Au- 
_ guit over Lincolnfhire, have been determined by its approach 
toward the fens, and an attraction produced by that large body 
of moifture? 
3. A further argument for the electric origin of meteors is 
deduced from their connexion with the northern lights, and 
the refemblance they bear to thefe electrical phenomena, as 
they are now almoft univerfally allowed to be, in feveral par- 
ticulars. Inftances are recorded, where northern lights have 
been feen to join and form luminous balls, darting about with 
great velocity, and even leaving a train behind like the com- 
mon fire-balls*. ‘This train I take to be nothing but the rare 
air left in fuch a highly electrified ftate as to be luminous} 
and fome ftreams of the northern lights are very much like it. 
The aurora borealis appears to occupy as high, if not a high®r, 
region above the furface of the earth, as may be judged from 
the very diftant countries to which is has been vifible at the 
fame time +; indeed the great accumulation of electric matter 
feems to lie beyond the verge of our atmofphere, as efti- 
mated by the ceflation of twilight. Alfo with the northern 
* Hitt. de VAcad. des Scienc. 1705, p. 35. Wuutston’s Account of a 
Meteor feen in the Air 1713. Phil. Tranf. vol. XLI. p. 626; and Lill. p. 6? 
Alfo a moft pointed fa& in the Act. Liter. Sueciz, 1734, p. 78. 
+ BerGman, upon a mean of 30 computations, makes the average height of 
the northern lights to be near 70 Swedifh, that is, about 460 Englifh miles. 
Kong. Vetenfk. Acad. Handlingar, vol. XXV. p. 193. See alfo Phil. Tranf. 
vol, LIV. p. 327. and M. nz Marran’s Traité de l’Aurore Boreale, p. g1. 
Ge¢g2  dights 
