[ 164 ] 
ready have been acquainted with them ; and this 
confideration prevented me. However, laft win- 
ter, on my return to this kingdom, I obferved 
fome facfts in electricity, which I flatter myfelf 
you will not think undeferving of your notice. 
What led me to make thefe experiments, was the 
ftrong electrical appearances that the air exhibited 
during the laft great froft, and the obfervation of 
feveral meteors, and other phenomena, that pof- 
fibly depend on electrical caufes. One of thefe 
meteors was fo remarkable, that I muft beg leave 
to give you fome fhort account of it. 
On Monday the ioth of February laft, exadtly 
at feven in the evening, as I was riding through 
Tweedmouth, a village at the fouth end of Ber- 
wick-bridge, I obferved that the atmofplicre was 
fuddenly illuminated in a very extraordinary man- 
ner. The light of the moon, which was about 
half full, feemed to be extinguifhed by the blaze; 
and I law my fhadow projected on the ground, 
and almoft as diftinct, and well-defined, as in fun- 
fhine. I turned round to fee from whence the 
light proceeded, when I beheld a long, bright 
flame, moving almoft horizontally along the hea- 
vens. It was of a conical form, and from the 
bafe to the apex could not be lefs than fix or 
feven degrees ; its height, when I firft obferved it, 
feemed to be about fifty degrees ; but it delcended 
gently, and appeared to burft about five or fix de- 
grees lower. Its courfe was from north-weft to 
louth-eaft, and feemed to have an inclination to 
the horizon ; but this might be only a deception. 
The bafe of the cone was rounded like a fphere ; 
and 
