Saturday, July 7, 1635. During a violent storm, a stone, weighing about 11 oz fell It Cake. in the Vi centine territory. Valisnirri 6, 1636. Dur ing a perfectly serene sky, a large stone fell, with a loud crash, between S igan and the village of Dubrow, in Silesia. It was covered with a crust, had, internal ly, the appearance of a metallic slag, and seemed as if it had been acted on by fire. Lucas. Seschiche's Citron. Clover. Geogr.-1638. Red rain at Tourney.—Novem ber 29, 1639, (not 1629, nor 1627, as misquoted by some writers ) In the third Section of the Second Book of his Physics, the celebrated Gassendi, whose accuracy and veracity will not be readily impeached, states, that, at ten o'clock in the morning, a stony mass, regarded as a thunder-stone, was seen by three creditable witnesses, to fall on Mount Vaision, one of the Maritime Alps, when the ground was covered with snow, and the sky perfectly serene. The spot is indicated as lying between the small towns of Guil laurnes and Perne, in Provence. Many, for a great way round, heard the explosion, but only three indi viduals saw the fire-ball. The noise which preceded it, they compared to the repeated discharge of artil lery ; but two of the concussions were particularly tremendous ; and the reverberation of the last was im mediately followed by a rumbling noise, like the beat ing of four or five drums, when a flaming circle, of varied hues and apparently of four feet in diameter, passed before the eyes of the spectators, accompanied with a loud hissing, like that of fire-works, and with a strong sulphureous odour. So far as could be con jectured, it had rushed on their view when at the dis tance of only a hundred paces from their persons; and they saw it strike the ground, like a black-bird with white spots, and smoke issue from the place where it fell, which was not beyond thirty paces from their own station. The noise which ensued on its striking the ground, was compared to the firing of musketry. The inhabitants of both towns flocked to the smoking scene, and found a hollow of nearly one foot wide, and three in depth, the snow being melted for five feet round, and the earth and small stones obviously cal cined. In the bottom of the hollow was found the stone, about the size of a calf's head, but rounder. and more approaching, in form, to that of a man. It was of a dark metallic colour, extremely hard, and weigh ed 54 Provençal, or 38 Parisian pounds, its specific gravity being to that of common marble, as 14 to 11.
Mons. Izarn, not only mis dates the year and day of this appearance, but asserts that Gassendi himself saw it; whereas that philosopher expressly says, ipse cum abes sem.
August 4, 1642, a stone, weighing 4 lb. fell between Woodbridge and Aldborough, in Suffolk Gent. :Vag — 1643, or 1644. Stones fell in the sea. It urfhain.—J in. 23, or 24, 1645. Red rain fell at Bois-le Duc.—Oct. 6, 1646 Red rain at Brussels Kronland, Wendelinus Feb. 18, 1647. A stone fell near Zwickau. Schmid — Atpzust, 1647. Stones fell in the bailliage of S•olzt nau, in Westphalia. Gilb. An —Bc.t.ween 1647 and 1654, a stone fell into the sea. IVillmann, Malte-Brun.— u gust 6, 1650. We find it mentioned in Senguerd's Phy sical Exercitations, that a stone fell at Dordreeht.---March 30, 1654 Thomas Bartholinus adverts to a shower of stones, in the island of Funen, in Denmark. A large stone fell at Warsaw. Pet Bore/tits A small stone fell at Milan, and killed a Franciscan monk. Museum Selz talianum.—June 19, or 21, 1668. A great fall of stones near Verona. Valisnieri, Monf•nari. and Carli From a book which was printed at Paris, in 1672, and which has now become very scarce, entitled, Conversations tirees de l'?cademie de Mons l'Ab8e •urdelot, contenant diverses recherches et observations physiques, par le Sieur I.egallois, we make the ensuing extract :
" One of the members presents a fragment of two stones which fell near Verona, one of which weighed 800 pounds, and the other 200 pounds. These stones," he says, " fell during the night, when the weather was quite mild and settled. They seemed to be all on fire, and came Iron) above, but in a slanting direction, and with a tremt ndous noise. This prodigy terribly alarmed three or lour hundred eye-witnesses, who were puzzled what to think of it. These stones fell with such rapidity that they formed a ditch, which, after the noise and flame had ceased, the spectators ventured to approach, and examine them more nearly. They then sent them to Verona, where they were deposited under care of the Academy ; and that learned body sent fragments of them to different places. This account induced the So ciety to consider the fragment in question with particular attention ; and they remarked that it was of a yellowish colour, very easily reducible to powder, and that it smelled of sulphur." In the course of examining one of these stones, M. Laugier, professor of pharmacy at Paris, detected in it, by means of the caustic alkali, the presence of chrome.
February 27, 1671 Stones fell in Swabia. Gilb. An. —1673. Some stones fell in the fields near Dietling, and were deposited in the museum of Brackenhofer. Lconar dus G C711112i8 , and Memorie delta Societa Colombaria Piorentina.—October 6, 1674, Scheuzer affixes this date to the descent of two large stones in the canton of Gla rus.—Between 1675 and 1677, a stone fell into a fish ing boat near Copinsha, in the Orkneys. Wallace's Ac count of Orkney, Gent. Mag " The air and clouds here," says Dr. Wallace, " by the operation of the sun, do sometimes generate several things ; as some years since, some fishermen fishing half a league from land, over against Copinsha, in a fair day, there fell down from the air a stone about the bigness of a foot-ball, which fell in the middle of the boat, and sprung a leak, to the great danger of the lives of the men that were in it, which could be no other than some substance ge nerated in the clouds. The stone was like condensed or petrified clay, and was a long time in the custody of Captain Ar,drew Dick, at that time steward of this country ; and Captain Dick, who is yet alive, told me he gave it to the late Earl of Glencairn." From these par ticulars, we can entertain little doubt of the fact, however much we may be disposed to smile at the Doctor's fa eilitt theorizing.
Alarch 26.0.S. 1676. About an hour and three quar ters after sun-set, a fire ball was seen to proceed, as if from Dalmatia, passing obliquely over Italy with a hiss ing noise, and exploding to the south south-west of Leghorn with a terrible report. Its fragments are said to have fallen into the sea, with the same sort of noise as when red hot iron is extinguished in water. Its greatest altitude in the south south-cast at Bologna, was and its greatest at Siena. in the north north-west, was 58° On one side of the t ()wary it seemed to be nearly vertical, at Rimini and S it it piano, and at Leg horn on the other. Montanari professor of mathema tics at Bologna, who published a treatise on this pheno menon, conjectures that the meteor must have moved at the rate of at least 16n miles in a minute. Its appa rent magnitude at Bologna exceeded that of the full moon in one diameter, and was above half as big again in the other. Dr. Halley has condensed ttic substance of Montanari's Report, in No. eccxli. of the Philosophical Transactions.