420 ATMOSPHERIGAr. PHENOMENA. 
•what elliptical. After moving not less than ten ^ 
this bright state, it became suddenly extinct, t'’’ 
appearance of bursting or explosion. 
AEROLITES. .. 
stp”' . 
entitled meteon 
to 
These phenomena, otherwise 
have been ascertained, by recent observations, to 
nected with the bolides, or fire-balls, describe 
Scoriaceous masses have frequently been If''? 
seen to fall at the time of the disappearance of 
or have been found soon after on the surface ot 
Most of the stones which have fallen from the 
have been preceded by the appearance of ltitnif°' . p, .1 
“• ... exp'Of' 
or meteors. These meteors burst with an 
then the shower of stones falls to the earth. 
the stones continue luminous till they sink 
intotbe^ti;^ 
commonly their lurainousne.ss disapp^?^^ 
but most 
time of their explosion. These meteors move 
ach 
the 
. rll'*'' 
tion nearly horizontal, and seem to appro; 
before they explode. 
The stony bodies, w'hen found immediatel) 
descent, are always hot. They commonly bury )i^ 
some depth under ground. Their size differs, sof»f/ 
ments of a very inconsiderable weight, to masse . 
tons. They usually approach the sjiherical !,di 
always covered with a black crust; in roany^.^J^ 
smell strongly ot sulphur. The blacK crust j 
of oxide of iron ; and from several accurate 
these stones, the following important inferences 
drawn : that not any other bodies have as 
Covered on our globe which contain the same 1 ® 
and that they have made us acquainted with tit 
vhcre 
1 
pyrites not formerly known, nor any w' 
• . , •i,hese'^‘’ 
The ancients were not unacquainted with n'v ^, ja 
stones, a shower of which is reported by 
fallen at Rome under the Consulate of Tullus \ } 
another under that of C. Martins and M. Torqh'^^^^ipj 
relates that a shower of iron (for thus he 
stones) fell in Lucania, a year before the ff<tbea' j-jll 
and likewise speaks of a very large stone "'bii' 
