202 Mr. Howard’s Experiments and Observations 
more worthy of attention, has since been described in the Philo- 
sophical Magazine. On the night of the 5th of April, 1800, a 
body wholly luminous, was seen, in America, to move with 
prodigious velocity. Its apparent size was that of a large house, 
70 feet long; and its elevation above the surface of the earth, 
about 200 yards. The light produced effects little short of sun- 
beams; and a considerable degree of heat was felt by those 
who saw it, but no electric sensation. Immediately after it dis- 
appeared in the north-west, a violent rushing noise was heard, 
as if the phenomenon were bearing down the forest before it ; 
and, in a few seconds after, there was a tremendous crash, 
causing a very sensible earthquake. Search being afterwards 
made in the place where the burning body fell, every vegetable 
was found burnt, or greatly scorched, and a considerable portion 
of the surface of the earth broken up. We have to lament, that 
the authors of this account did not search deeper than the sur- 
face of the ground. Such an immense body, though moving in 
a horizontal direction, could not but be buried to a considerable 
depth. Should it have been more than the semblance of a body 
of a peculiar nature, the lapse of ages may perhaps effect what 
has now been neglected ; and its magnitude and solitary situation 
become the astonishment of future philosophers. 
This leads me to speak of the solitary mass of what has been 
called native iron, which was discovered in South America, and 
has been described by Don Rubin de Celis. Its weight was 
about 15 tons. The same author mentions another insulated 
mass of the same nature. The whole account is exceedingly 
interesting; but, being' already published in the Philosophical 
Transactions for the year 1788, it needs not be here repeated. 
Mr. Proust has shewn the mass particularly described, not to 
