Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 1.djvu/96

Rh the Professor are here quoted at some length; as our author proposes to draw a comparison between their results, and those he deduces from his own investigation.

The instances next in succession, and which are the principal objects of this paper, are: 1. The several stones, about twelve in number, which in the year 1794 were seen by several persons falling from the clouds near Sienna, in the midst of a violent thunder-storm, and eighteen hours after an enormous eruption of Mount Vesuvius. As an ample account of this extraordinary phnomenon is printed in the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1795, it will be needless to dwell here any longer upon it, than merely to observe that these stones are of a quality not found in any part of the Siennese territory; and that as to their being of volcanic origin, it is scarce credible that they could have been carried in the air to a distance of at least two hundred and ﬁfty miles. 2. The second instance is that of the stone, weighing no less than ﬁfty—six pounds, which, according to the attestation of several persons who profess themselves eye-witnesses, fell on the 13th of December, 1795, near Wold Cottage in Yorkshire, and was, when extracted from the depth of about eighteen inches in the earth, still warm, and smoking. Here too no similar stone is to be met with in any part of that county. The weather was mild and hazy, but there was no thunder or lightning the Whole day. 3. The third instance, which comes perhaps better authenticated than the two preceding ones, is that of a number of stones which, after the explosion of a meteor on the 19th of December, 1798, fell about eighteen miles from Benares, in the East Indies. The account of this phenomenon is given in a very circumstantial manner by John Lloyd Williams, Esq. F.R.S. At the time when the meteor appeared, the sky was perfectly serene, nor had the smallest vestige of a cloud been seen for several days before and after the phaenomenon. The largest of the stones, of which Mr. Williams had seen eight, weighed 21 lb. 12 oz. There are no volcanoes on the Continent of India, nor have any stones yet been met with in that part of the world which bear the smallest resemblance to those here described. Lastly, the fourth instance occurs in the collection of Baron Born, now in the possession of the Right Hon. Charles Greville. In Born’s catalogue the specimen here mentioned is described as a mass of iron found near Tabor in Bohemia; and in a note it is observed that credulous people assert it to have fallen from heaven on the 3rd of July, 1753: in fact, on comparing it with the Sienna and Yorkshire stones, there appeared sufﬁcient reason to excite a suspicion of its being of the same nature.

We here anticipate the account given in the latter part of the paper of the two enormous masses of a substance which has been considered as native iron, the one weighing about 15 tons, observed in South America, and described by Don Rubin de Celis, whose account is inserted in the Philosophical Transactions for the year