A plain testimony of the falling of this was affirmed to be, produced as follows; that a labourer, at a brick-kiln, in winter, when the earth was covered with snow, saw it fall down out of the air immediately after a violent clap of thunder;--and that he instantly ran up to take it out of the snow; but found he could not do so, on account of its heat; and was obliged therefore to wait, to let it cool. That it was about half a foot in diameter; and was entirely covered with a black coat like iron.[FF]
And I must now add that there is a record;[GG] that stones, to the number of some hundreds, did once fall in the neighbourhood of a place called _Abdua_; which were very large and heavy;--of the colour of rusty iron;--smooth, and hard;--and of a sulphureous smell:--and which were observed to fall from a vehement whirlwind; that appeared (like that in Tuscany) as an atmosphere of fire.
Here I intended to have concluded all my observations. But a recent publication, which I knew not of, when these sheets were written, obliges me to add a few more pages.
In a very singular tract, published in 1794, at Riga, by Dr. _Chladni_, concerning the supposed origin of the mass of iron found by Dr. Pallas in Siberia; which the Tartars still affirm to be _an holy thing_, and, _to have fallen from heaven_; and concerning what have been supposed, by him, to be similar phænomena; some circumstances are also mentioned, which it would be an unjust omission not to take notice of shortly, on the present occasion.
With the author's hypothesis I do not presume to interfere; but surely his facts, which he affirms in support of his ideas, deserve much attention; and ought to be inserted, before I conclude these observations: and the rather, as they were adduced to maintain conclusions very different from these now offered to the consideration of the curious.
On the 21st of May, 1676, a fire ball was seen to come from Dalmatia,[HH] proceeding over the Adriatic sea; it passed obliquely over Italy; where an hissing noise was heard; it burst SSW from Leghorn, with a terrible report; _and the pieces are said to have fallen into the sea_, with the same sort of noise, as when red hot iron is quenched or extinguished in water. Its height was computed to be not less than thirty-eight Italian miles; and it is said to have moved with immense velocity. Its form was oblong, at least as the luminous appearance seemed in its passage.