DUBV, Mayer ; .111. Baudin states, that as Mr. Carris and he were walking in the court-yard of the castle of Morines, about half past nine o'clock in the evening, when the air was quite calm, and the sky cloudless, they found themselves suddenly surrounded by a pale clear light, which dimi nished that of the nearly full moon. On looking up, they observed, almost in their zenith, a fire-ball of a larger apparent diameter than that of the moon, dragging a tail five or six times longer than its body, and which gradu ally tapered to a blood red point, while the rest of the meteor was of a pale white. The direction of this lu minous body, which proceeded with great velocity, was from south to north. In about two seconds, it split into portions of considerable size, which fell in different di rections, like the fragments of a bomb that bursts in the air. These fragments became extinguished before they reached the ground, and some of them, in falling, as sumed that blood red colour which had been observed at the point of the tail. Two or three minutes after, they heard a dreadful explosion, like the simultaneous firing of several pieces of ordnance. The concussion of the atmosphere produced effects similar to those of an earthquake; for windows shook in their frames, and kitchen utensils were thrown down from their shelves; but M. Baudin and his friend were not sensible of any motion under their feet. From the court of the castle these gentlemen went into the garden, when the noise still continued, and seemed to be directed over their heads. Some time after it had ceased, they heard a hol low sound rolling in echoes, for fifty miles, along the chain of the Pyrenees, continuing for four minutes, and gradually dying away in distance, the atmosphere all the time diffusing a sulphureous odour.
The interval which occurred between the bursting of the meteor and the loud report, induced M. Baudin to conjecture that the fire-ball must have been at least eight miles from the earth's surface, and that it fell about four :riles from Morn es ; and the latter part of his conjec ture was confirmed by the fact. It appears, indeed, from the concurring relations of intelligent persons worthy of credit, that the meteor really exploded at a little distance from Juillac, and that the fallen stones, of different sizes, were found lying in an almost circular space of nearly two miles in diameter. Though some of them fell in courts and gardens, no houses were ma terially injured ; but, in the neighbouring woods, some branches were broken and torn off. According to some
of the accounts, one of the stones fifteen inches in diameter, broke through the roof of a cottage, and killed a herds man and a bullock. People deserving of credit, men tioned that one of four pounds had fallen near a farmer's door ; and another, which weighed between twenty and twenty-five pounds, was carried as a curiosity to the town of Mont-du-Marsan. Though generally smooth on the outside, they presented some longitudinal cracks or fissures, while their internal substance, transversely stri ated, exhibited indications of metallic veins, especially of a ferruginous complexion. When yet red hot, and scattered in various directions, they formed that magni ficent fire-work, that shower of flame, which illuminated the horizon over a large track of country. The meteor is supposed to have been perpendicular to Juillac, since at Dax, situated to the south-west of Alessi!), it was per ceived in the north-east. It was seen at Bayonne, Auch, Pan, Tarbes, and even at Bourdcaux and Toulouse, though at the last mentioned place it excited little at tention, on account of its great distance, and its appear ing only a little brighter than a shooting star.
When all the circumstances of the case are duly con sidered, we need not be surprised that the publication of them should produce conviction on the minds of many men of science, who had avowed their disbelief in every thing of the kind. In fact, when we are presented with the joint testimony of the learned and unlearned of the district, in which the phenomenon is stated to have oc curred, when we find the Professor of Natural History in the central school of Agen retracting his former scep ticism, and the accurate and skilful Vauquclin revealing the same chemical substances which he had detected in other atmospheric stones, and nearly in the same pro portions, it would be highly unreasonable to withhold our assent, merely because we have not in person wit nessed the particulars. The few apparent discrepancies which may be observed in the different accounts, are all capable of an easy solution, and ought in no respect to invalidate the testimony in favour of the general fact ; yet, it is not a little singular that different narratives, published at no great distance of time subsequent to the event, assign to it erroneous dates, some placing it in 1789, others in 1791, some in August, and others in September. Specimens of the Barbotan stones are not uncommon in the collections of the curious.