—March 1, 1596, stones fell at Crevalcore, Mittarelli. Some time in the course of the sixteenth century, and not, as alleged, in 1603, a stone, exhibting metallic veins, is reported to have descended in the province of Valencia, in Spain. Cresius, and the Jesuits of Coim bra. in their remarks on Aristotle's Meteorology —Au gust, 1618, a great fall of stones, with a shower of blood, occurred in Styria. De Hammer.-1618. A me tallic mass fell in Bohemia. Kron/und.
April 17, 1620, the Emperor, Jehangire, in his Me moirs written 1) himself, in the Persian language, and translated by Colonel Kirkpatrick, from an old MS. thus relates the fall of a piece of meteoric iron.
" A. H 1030, or 16th year of the reign.—The fol lowing is among the extraordinary occurrences of this period.
" Early on the 30th of Furverdeen, of the present year,* and in the Eastern quarter (of the heavens,) there arose in one of the villages of the Purguonah of J.dindher,f such a great and tremendous noise, as had nearly, by its dreadful nature, deprived the inhabitants of the place of their senses. During this noise, a lu minous body (was observed) to fall from above on the earth, suggesting to the beholders the idea that the fir mament was raining lire. In a short time, the noise having subsided, and the inhabitants having recovered from their alarm, a courier was dispatched (by them) to Mahommed Syeed, the Aumill of the aforesaid Purgunnah, to advertise him of this event. The Au mil, instantly mounting (his horse,) proceeded to the spot (where the luminous body had fallen ) Here he perceived the earth, to the extent of ten or twelve guz,§ in length and breadth, to be burnt to such a degree, that not the least trace of verdure, or blade of grass re mained ; nor had the heat (which had been communi cated to it) yet subsided entirely.
" Mahommed Syeed hereupon directed the aforesaid space of ground to be dug up ; when, the deeper it was (lug, the greater was the heat of it lound to be. At length, a lump of iron made its appearance, the heat of which was so violent, that one might have sup posed it to have been taken from a furnace. After some time it became cold, when the Aumil conveyed it to his own habitation, from whence he afterwards dispatched it, in a scaled bag, to court.
" Here I had (this substance) weighed in my pre sence. Its weight was one hundred and sixty tolahs.11 I committed it to a skilful artisan, with orders to make of it a sabre, a knife, and a dagger. The workman (soon) reported, that the substance was not malleable, but shivered into pieces under the hammer.11 " Upon this, I ordered it to be mixed with other iron. Conformably to my orders, three parts of the iron of lightning** were mixed with one part of com mon iron ; and from the mixture were made two sabres, one knife, and one dagger.
" By the addition of the common iron, the (new) substance acquired a (fine) temper; the blade (fabri cated from it) proving as elastic as the most genuine blades of Ultnanny,if and of the South, and bending, like them, without leaving any mark of the bend. I had them tried in my presence, and found them cut excellently ; as well (indeed) as the best genuine sabres.
One of these sahres I named Katai. or the cutter ; and the other Burk-serisht, or the lightning natured.
" A poet* composed and presented to me, on this occasion, the following tetrastich.
" This earth has attained order and regularity through the Emperor Jehangire : " In his time fell raw iron from lightning : " That iron was, by his world subduing authority, '• Converted into a dagger a knife, and two sabres." But, what is more to our purpose, the late Hon. Charles Greville, at whose request Colonel Kirkpatrick translated the foregoing quotation, has remarked, that the Emperor Jehangire was not a prince on whom his courtiers would idly venture to impose ; and that there can be little probability that an Aumil of a district should invent such a story, or be able to pi oduce a substance like iron, but which, on trial, should differ from manufactured iron.
January 10, 622, a stone fell in Devonshire. Rumph. —April 9, 1628, stones f. 11 near Hatiord, in Berkshire. Gent Mag.—Drcember 6, 1631. The following letter from Captain William Buddy, is inserted in the first volume of the Pidlosophical Transactions. " The 6th of December, 1631, heing in the Gulf of Volo, riding at anchor, about ten of the clock that night, it began to rain sand or ashes, and continued till two of the clock next morning. It was about two inches thick on the deck, so that we cast it overboard with shovels, as we did snow the day before : the quantity of a bushel we brought home, and presented to several friends,t especially to the Masters of Trinity House. There was in our company, Captain John Wilds, Commander of the Dragon, and Captain Anthony Watts, Com mander of the Elizabeth and Dorcas There was no wind stirring when these ashes fell ; it did not fall on ly in the places where we were, but likewise in other pat ts, as ships were coming front St. John d'Acre to our port : they being at that time a hundred leagues from us. We compared the ashes together, and found them both one." October 27, 1634, stones fell in the Charollois. Mo rinus.—June 2 t, 1635. Francesco Carli, a learned, and highly respectable gentleman of Verona, reports the fall of a large stone at five o'clock in the evening. It was preceded by a great mass of flame, which tra versed the Lago di Garcia with such velocity, that the eye could scarcely follow its motions, illuminated all the country in the pith of its passage, shaking the houses with its loud explosion, and alighting on the grounds of the Benedictine monks. under the town of Vago, about six Italian miles from Verona. Next morning there was found, on the spot on which it had alighted, a stone. invested with a black and chan nelled crust, which had penetrated about a yard into the soil, and was broken into several pieces, the larg est of which was of a cubical form, of nearly a yard and a half on every side, of the colour of ashes, giv ing out an offensive odour of sulphur, and having mi nute particles of iron disseminated through its sub stance.