407 
Scientific Intelligence . — M eteorology. 
the meteor had drawn along with it from a distance. The 
noise which it made in its rapid progress was similar to that of 
a heavy carriage rattling at full speed upon a stone pavement. 
An explosion, like the report of a musket, was heard at each erup- 
tion of fire or vapour ; the wind, ivhich was impetuous, joined a 
fearful whizzing to this noise. After having torn up the earth 
and carried off whatever offered resistance in one place, it rose 
from the ground, to proceed to another, a league and sometimes 
two leagues distant, to recommence its ravages. Thus, on leaving 
Mount Capelle, always following the same direction, it lighted 
next at Hernies St Julien, at the distance of a league from the 
mountain, where it carried off several hay-cocks, and a number 
of trees. From this village to Witernestie, over an interval of 
three leagues, it committed no ravages worthy of mention, there 
having been only observed upon the mountain which separates 
Hernies from Etree-Blanche, a furrow of the breadth of thirty 
yards, in which the corn was destroyed, over an extent of thirty 
acres of land, situated at the summit. From hence it penetrated 
into the valley of Witernestie and Lambre. In the former of 
these villages, which consisted of forty dwelling houses, eight 
only were left uninjured ; thirty-two houses with their barns 
were overturned, and an enormous quantity of trees thrown down, 
torn asunder, and carried to a great distance. It was observed 
at Witernestie, that the roofs and walls of the houses were laid 
in a diverging manner, from within outwards. The injury done 
was not less considerable at Lambre. Several persons observed 
perfectly the turning motion of the meteor, its sulphury brown 
colour, and the centre of flame from which proceeded blazes of 
bituminous vapour. The trees surrounding the church were 
broken and torn up by the roots ; the wall and roof of the cu- 
rate’s house carried off, and eighteen houses, the greater num- 
ber built of brick, levelled to their foundations, with the extra- 
ordinary phenomenon of the walls being separated by having 
been thrown outwards. A fortunate circumstance, in the midst 
of this great calamity, was that nobody lost his life, even in the 
two last villages ; a single individual at Witernestie was severely 
wounded in the arm by a beam. On leaving the village of 
Lambre, the whirlwind divided into two ; one portion was dis- 
sipated in the air; the other, which now appeared only as a cloud 
