" Yesterday our town's people were agitated by a very unusual alarm. About a quarter past nine o'clock, there suddenly appeared in the air a fire-ball, dragging a long train, which spread a very vivid light over the horizon. This fire-ball soon disappeared, and seemed to fall at one hundred paces from us. Soon after we heard an explosion, much louder than that of cannon or of thun der. Every body dreaded being buried under the houses, which threatened to give way, from the violence of the concussion. The same phenomenon was seen, and the report heard in the neighbouring towns, such as Mont du Marsan, Tartas, and Dax. In other respects the weather was very calm, without a breath of wind or a cloud, and the moon shone in all her brightness." M. Darcet's brother, a clergyman in that part of the the country, sent him a small stone, which was picked up on the morning after the explosion, and the history of which he was scrupulously anxious to investigate. Being satisfied with respect to all the particulars, he dispatched it to Paris, accompanied with some curious remarks. " When the stones fell," he observes, " they had not their present degree of hardness. Some of them fell on straw, bits of which stuck to the stones, and in corporated with them. I have seen one in this predica ment. It is at present at la Bastidc, but I cannot per suade the owner to part with it.... Those which fell on the houses, produced a noise not like that of stones, hut rather like that of a substance which had not yet ac quired compactness."
We shall also cite the proch verbal, a simple but au thentic document.
" In the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety, and the 30th day of the month of August, we, the Sieur Jean Duby, Mayor, and Louis Maullon, Procurator of the Commune of the Municipality of La Grange de Juillac, and Jean Darmitte, resident in the parish of la Grange de Juillac, certify in truth and verity, that on Saturday the 24th of July last, between nine and ten o'clock, there passed a great fire, and after it we heard in the air a very loud and extraordinary noise; and about two minutes after there fell stones from heaven ; but fortunately there fell only a very few; and they fell about ten paces from one another in some places, and in others nearer, and finally in some other places farther, and falling, most of them of the weight of about half of a quarter of a pound each ; some others of about half a pound, like that found in our parish of la Grange ; and on the borders of the parish of Creon, they were found of a pound weight, and in falling they seemed not to be inflamed, but very hard and black, without and within, of the colour of steel ; and, thank God, they oc casioned no•harm to the people nor to the trees, but only to some trees which were broken on the houses ; and most of them fell gently, and others quickly, with a his sing noise ; and some were found which had entered into the earth, but very few. In witness whereof we have written and signed these presents.