Pst accounted for by supposing the sun¬ 
shine to pass through, either at one of her 
poiar openings, or through an annular cav¬ 
ity on her farther side, and appearing to 
us through a similar cavity on this side, 
and near one or the other of her poles. 
‘‘Those fire balls or meteoric stones 
which sometimes fall to the earth, afford a 
very palpable proof, and serve still fur- 
; ther to substantiate the Theory 1 have de¬ 
clared. Professor Silliman, of Yale Col¬ 
lege, in Connecticut, has pieserv-ed some 
i ot the fragments of one of those fire balls, 
and given the public an able description 
of the attendant facts which occurred 
when it fell; this fireball it appears fell 
in Connecticut, in 1807, when progressing 
southwardly, and produced three succes¬ 
sive distinct cannon-like reports, making 
I three convulsive throes in its course 
(which were doubtless simultaneous with 
the explosions,) becoming less luminous 
at each throe, and quite extinguished at 
the third and last; three showers of stone 
fell to the earth in a line with its course, 
the second shower five miles from the 
first, and the last shower three or four 
miles from the second; some of the frag¬ 
ments were found to be concave, and some 
convex, especially on those sides of the 
fragments which were glazed with a sooty 
crusted surface as if vitrified by fire. These 
phenomena are such as should occur, sup¬ 
posing the fire ball to have been a small 
satellite or petty erratic planet, at first flu¬ 
id, and which lmd so condensed by the 
increased action of terrestrial gravity,act¬ 
ing on it in consequence of its sudden ap¬ 
proach to the earth, as to cause its fluid 
parts to crystalize, and form into at least 
three concentric spheres of solids: and the 
latent heat and light set free, by such ra¬ 
pid condensation, producing the meteoric 
fire and flame, (which in this case was al- 
m °st equal in light to the sun at mid day) 
i s p soon as the spheres thus become suffi¬ 
ciently solidified, to prevent the heated ce- 
r j a l fluid contained in the midplace cavi¬ 
ties of the spheres frontpaging 0U £ vv ] t j ) 
