Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/446

390 following account of an extraordinary meteor seen in the valley of Canete, on the evening of the 25th of December, 1790, was communicated to the Academical Society of Lima by an inhabitant of the city of Canete.

"The sun having set at twelve minutes after six in the evening, had scarcely, by its absence, begun to obscure the night, when, the atmosphere being clear and serene, a dusky meteor, running north and south below the zenith, presented itself to the view, and illuminated the whole of the valley. Its figure was that of a segment of a circle, about 115 degrees in circumference, the two extremities of which, perpendicular to the horizon, were accurately defined, and suspended in the air. Its equal aspect in every part, denoted its thickness to be about half a yard. It was embellished, or rather rendered terrific, by the mixture of black and ash colours, which resembled an overshadowed iris. It remained fixed and motionless in its primitive situation until half past ten o'clock, when it began to be dispersed by the rays of light emitted by the moon.

"While the people, with uplifted hands, implored the Deity to suspend the calamities which this sinister token, as they thought it, announced to them, my mind was wholly occupied by reflections on the nature of meteors. The knowledge, such as it is, which I possess on that subject, impelled me to make a philosophical exhortation to the spectators, and to combat their vain terrors; but I was deterred by the recollection of the austral aurora which appeared at Cusco in the year 1742, and did not wish to bring down mischief on my head.