Notes and Extracts 



545 



NOTES AND EXTRACTS. 



We take the following circumstantial description of a 

 globular meteor or " fire-ball " from Flammarian's " Thunder 

 and Lightning " : — 



In the month of June, 1841, I was staying at the Hotel de l'Agnells 

 in a room on the second floor, overlooking the Corso dei Servi. It 

 was about six in the afternoon. The rain was coming down in 

 torrents, and the darkest rooms were lit up by the lightning-flashes 

 better than our rooms generally are by gas. Thunder broke out 

 every now and then with appalling violence. The windows of the 

 houses were closed, and the streets were deserted, for, as I have 

 said, there was a steady downpour, and the main road was turned 

 into a torrent. I was sitting quietly smoking and looking out at 

 the rain, which an occasional ray of sunlight set flashing like threads 

 of gold, when I suddenly heard voices in the street calling out 

 " Guarda, guarda /" (Look, look !) and at the same moment a clatter 

 of hobnailed boots. I ran to the window, and looking to the right, 

 in the direction of the clamour, I saw a fire-ball making its way 

 down the middle of the road on a level with my window, in a 

 noticeably oblique direction, not horizontally. Eight or ten persons 

 continuing to call out " Guarda, guarda ! " kept pace with it, walking 

 down the street, stepping out quickly. The meteor passed my 

 window, and I had to turn to the left to see what would be the 

 end of its caprice. After a moment, fearing to lose sight of it behind 

 some houses which jutted out beyond my hotel, I went quickly down- 

 stairs and into the street, and was in time to see it again and to join 

 those who were following its course. It was still going slowly, but 

 it was now higher up and was still ascending, so much so, that after 

 a few minutes it hit the cross upon the clock tower of the Chiesa die 

 Servi, and disappeared. Its disappearance was accompanied by a 

 dull report like that of a big cannon twenty miles away when the 

 wind carries the sound. To give an idea of the size and colour of 

 this globe of fire, I can only compare it to the appearance of the 

 moon as orie may see it sometimes rising above the Alps on a clear 

 night in winter, and as I myself have seen it at Innspriick — that 

 is to say, of a reddish-yellow, with patches on it almost of red. The 

 difference was that you could not see the contours of the meteor 

 distinctly as you could the moon, and that it seemed to be enveloped 

 in a luminous atmosphere of indefinite extent. 



