427 
hours after sunset, a large meteor passed over Italy : it came 
over the Adriatic Sea as if from Dalmatia, crossing the 
country in the direction of Rimini and Leghorn, disappearing 
out at sea towards Corsica. 
It was heard to make a hissing sound as it passed, like that 
of artificial fireworks. At Bologna the head of the meteor 
appeared larger than the moon in one diameter, and above 
half as large again in the other. At Leghorn it was heard to 
give a very loud report, like a great cannon; immediately 
after which another sort of sound was heard, like the rattling 
of a great cart running over stones. Its velocity was estimated 
at 160 miles per minute, its height about 38 miles, and its 
lesser diameter about half a mile. Another meteor was 
observed to pass over all England on the 19th of March, 1718. 
It was seen by Sir Hans Sloane in London at about a quarter 
after 8 at night. He was surprised by a sudden light far 
exceeding that of the moon. Turning towards it, he observed 
a large spherical meteor not so large as the moon, near the 
Pleiades, whence it moved after the manner of a falling star, 
but more slowly, in a seeming direct line, descending beyond 
and below the stars in Orion's belt. Its brightness was so 
dazzling that he was obliged to turn his eyes several times 
from it, as well when it appeared as a stream as when it 
became pear-fashioned and a globe. It left behind a track of 
a faint reddish-yellow colour, that continued for more than a 
minute. He heard no noise. Through Devon and Cornwall, 
and along the opposite coast of Bretagne the meteor was heard 
to explode. The report was like that of a very great cannon, 
or, rather, a broadside at a distance, followed by a rattling 
noise, as if many small-arms had been promiscuously dis- 
charged. Halley estimated the height of this meteor at 
60 miles, and its rate at 300 miles per minute. 
A similar meteor was observed in England on the 11th of 
December, 1741, while the sun was shining brightly in a 
serene sky, and was heard to explode in Sussex. A friend 
of Humboldt, in the year 1788, at Popayan, found his room 
lighted up at noonday by a meteor, while the sun was shinino* 
brightly in a cloudless sky. 
Hundreds of such meteors have been described, and though 
explosions have been heard over parts of the country favour- 
able for recovering anything solid if it fell from a meteor, 
in but some four or five cases has anything been picked up 
likely to have fallen from a meteor; and out of these few 
cases some are considered doubtful. 
We now proceed to consider another phenomenon, — the fall 
2 i 2 
