Chapter 2

For when the royal Psalmist says,[X] "_The Lord also thundered out of heaven, and the Highest gave his thunder: hail-stones_, AND COALS OF FIRE,"--the latter expression, in consistency with common sense, and conformably to the right meaning of language, cannot but allude to some _such_ phænomenon as we have been describing. And especially, as in the cautious translation of the seventy, a Greek word is used, which decidedly means _real hard substances made red hot_; and not mere appearances of fire or flame.

Whilst therefore, with the same sacred writer,[Y] we should be led to consider all these powerful operations, as the works of God; _Who casteth forth his ice like morsels_;[Z] and should be led to consider "_fire and hail, snow and vapours, wind and storm as fulfilling his word_;"[AA] we should also be led to perceive, that the objections to Holy Writ, founded on a supposed _impossibility_ of the truth of what is written in the book of _Joshua_,[BB] concerning the stones that fell from heaven, on the army of the Canaanites; are only founded in ignorance, and error.

And much more should we be led to do so; when, to these observations, and testimonies, concerning showers of hot burning stones, is added the consideration; that within the short period of our own lives, incredibly large _real hail-stones_, formed of consolidated ice;--_of ice consolidated in the atmosphere_, have fallen both in France, and in England.

In France, on the 13th of July in the year 1788;--of which it is well known there has been a printed account: and concerning which it is said, and has been confirmed, on good authority, that some of the stones weighed three pounds: whilst others have been said to weigh even five pounds.

And in England, on the 20th of October, 1791, in Cornwall.

Of one of the hail-stones of this latter, minor storm, I have had an opportunity of obtaining, by the favour of a friend, an exact model in glass; whereof I now add an engraving.

This stone fell, with thousands of others of the same kind, near _Menabilly_, the seat of _Philip Rashleigh_, Esq.; well known for his science, and attention to whatever is curious; who having great copper works, and many ingenious miners, and workmen, on his estate, and directly under his eye; caused it to be instantly picked up: and having then, himself, first traced both its top, and bottom, upon paper; and having measured its thickness in every part, with a pair of compasses; caused a very exact mould to be formed: and afterwards, in that mould, had this model cast in glass: wherein, also, the appearances of the imbedded, common, small, roundish hail-stones, are seen transparently; just as they appeared in the great hail-stone itself originally.

Fig. 1, is a representation of the flat bottom of the stone.

Fig. 2, is a representation of the top of the stone.

And fig. 3, shews the whole solid appearance sideways.

Whilst Mr. Rashleigh was taking the measures, it melted so fast, that he could not, in the end, take the _exact weight_, as he fully intended to have done. But as this model in glass weighs exactly 1 ounce, 16 pennyweights, 23 grains, we may fairly conclude, that the hail-stone itself weighed much above half an ounce.

For it is well known, that the specific gravity of common glass, of which sort this model is made, is to that of water, as 2.620 to 1.000. And the specific gravity of common water, is to ice, as 8 to 7.[CC]--And computing according to this standard, I make the exact weight of the hail-stone to have been 295 grains.

From the singular manner in which the small, prior, common hail-stones appear to have been imbedded in this larger one, whilst they were falling to the earth; there is reason to be convinced, that it was formed in the atmosphere, by a sudden extraordinary congelation _almost instantaneously_, out of rain suddenly condensed, which was mingled with the common hail.

And it was very remarkable, that its dissolution, and melting, also, was much more rapid than that of the common small white hail-stones: as was the case, in like manner, with the other numerous large ones.

Perhaps it ought to be here added:--that on the 18th of May, in the year 1680, some hail-stones are recorded to have fallen in London, near _Gresham college_, which were seen and examined by the celebrated _Dr. Hooke_; and were some of them not less than two inches over, and others three inches.

This which fell in Cornwall was only about one inch and three quarters long; an inch, or in some parts an inch and a quarter broad; and between half an inch, and three quarters of an inch thick. And its weight was near an ounce.--How much more tremendous then were those others, that have been described as having fallen in France?--the accounts of some of them may very probably have been exaggerated: but the reality was nevertheless as wonderful, surely, as any thing related concerning the ages of antiquity.

A proneness to credulity is ever blameable. And it is very possible, that sometimes, in a very wonderful narration, a jest may be intended to be palmed upon the world, instead of any elucidation of truth.--But facts, _positively affirmed_, should be hearkened to with patience: and, at least, so far recorded, as to give an opportunity of verifying whether similar events do afterwards happen; and of comparing such events one with another.

To what has been said, therefore, concerning the fall of stones in Tuscany, and concerning these strange showers of hail, in France, and in England, it might perhaps too justly be deemed an unwarrantable omission, on this occasion, not to mention the very strange fact that is affirmed to have happened the last year, near _the Wold Cottage_ in Yorkshire.

I leave the fact to rest on the support of the testimonies referred to in the printed paper, which is in so many persons' hands; and that is given to those who have the curiosity to examine the stone itself, now exhibiting in London;--and shall only relate the substance of the account shortly, as it is given to us.

In the afternoon of the 13th of December, 1795, near the Wold Cottage, noises were heard in the air, by various persons, like the report of a pistol; or of guns at a distance at sea; though there was neither any thunder or lightning at the time:--two distinct concussions of the earth were said to be perceived:--and an hissing noise, was also affirmed to be heard by other persons, as of something passing through the air;--and a labouring man plainly saw (as we are told) that something was so passing; and beheld a stone, as it seemed, at last, (about ten yards, or thirty feet, distant from the ground) descending, and striking into the ground, which flew up all about him: and in falling, sparks of fire, seemed to fly from it.

Afterwards he went to the place, in company with others; who had witnessed part of the phænomena, and dug the stone up from the place, where it was buried about twenty-one inches deep.

It smelt, (as it is said,) very strongly of sulphur, when it was dug up: and was even warm, and smoked:--it was found to be thirty inches in length, and twenty-eight and a half inches in breadth. And it weighed fifty-six pounds.

Such is the account.--I affirm nothing.--Neither do I pretend either absolutely to believe: or to disbelieve.--I have not an opportunity to examine the whole of the evidence.--But it may be examined: and so I leave it to be.

This, however, I will say: that _first_ I saw a fragment of this stone; which had come into the hands of Sir Charles Blagden, from the Duke of Leeds: and afterwards I saw the stone itself.--That it plainly had a dark, black crust; with several concave impressions on the outside, which must have been made before it was quite hardened; just like what is related concerning the crusts of those stones that fell in Italy.--That its substance was not _properly_ of a _granite kind_, as described in the printed paper; but a sort of _grit stone_; composed (somewhat like the stones said to have fallen in Italy) of sand and ashes.--That it contained very many particles, obviously of the appearance of gold, and silver, and iron; (or rather more truly of _pyrites_).--That there were also several small rusty specks; probably from decomposed pyrites;--and some striated marks;--that it does not effervesce with acids;--and that, as far as I have ever seen, or known, or have been able to obtain any information, no _such_ stone has ever been found, before this time, in Yorkshire; or in any part of England. Nor can I easily conceive that such a species of stone could be formed, by art, to impose upon the public.

Whether, therefore, it might, or might not, possibly be the effect of ashes flung out from _Heckla_, and wafted to England; like those flung out from Vesuvius, and (as I am disposed to believe) wafted to Tuscany, I have nothing to affirm.

I wish to be understood to preserve mere records, the full authority for which, deserves to be investigated more and more.

Having, nevertheless, gone so far as to say thus much; I ought to add, that the memorial of such sort of large stones having fallen from the clouds is still preserved also in Germany.

For one is recorded to have fallen in _Alsace_, in the midst of a storm of hail, November 29th, A. D. 1630;[DD] which is said to be preserved in the great church of _Anxissem_: and to be like a large dark sort of flint-stone; having its surface operated upon by fire: and to be of very many pounds weight.

And another is said to be still preserved at Vienna.

This last is described by _Abbé Stutz_, Assistant in the Imperial cabinet of curiosities at Vienna, in a book printed in German, at _Leipsyc_, in 1790: entitled _Bergbaukimde_ (or _the Science of Mining_.)

After describing two other stones, said to have fallen from the clouds: one in the _Eichstedt_ country in Germany; and another in the _Bechin_ circle, in Bohemia, in July, 1753; concerning the _real_ falling of which he had expressed some doubts; he proceeds to describe the falling of two, (whereof this was one,) not far from _Agram_, the capital of _Croatia_, in Hungary; which caused him to change his opinion; and to believe, that the falling of such stones from heaven, was very possible.

His words, fairly translated,[EE] in the beginning of his narrative, are, "These accounts put me in mind of a mass of iron, weighing seventy-one pounds, which was sent to the imperial collection of natural curiosities: about the origin of which _many mouths have been distorted with scoffing laughter_. If, in the _Eichstedt_ specimen, the effects of fire appear _tolerably_ evident; they are, in this, not to be mistaken.--Its surface is full of spherical impressions, like the mass of iron, which the celebrated _Pallas_ found on the Jenisei river; except that here the impressions are larger, and less deep; and it wants both the yellow glass, which fills up the hollows of the _Siberian_ iron; and the _sand stone_, which is found in the _Eichstedt_ specimen; the whole mass being solid, compact, and black, like hammered iron."

And his words in the end of the narrative are,

"There is a great step from the disbelief of tales, to the finding out the true cause of a phænomenon which appears wonderful to us. And probably I should have committed the fault into which we so naturally fall, respecting things we cannot explain; and have rather denied the whole history, than have determined to believe any thing _so incredible_; if various new writings, on electricity, and thunder, had not fortunately, at that time come into my hands; concerning remarkable experiments of reviving _metallic calces_ by the electric spark. Lightning is an electrical stroke on a large scale.--If then the reduction of iron can be obtained, by the discharge of an electrical machine; why should not this be accomplished as well, and with much greater effect by the very powerful discharge of the lightning of the clouds?"

The substance of the account of the fall of stones, in Hungary, as given by him, after the most accurate inquiries, is what I shall now add in the following abridged detail; and it was verified by _Wolfgang Kukulyewich, Spiritual vicar of Francis Baron Clobuschiczky, Bishop of Agram_, who caused seven eye witnesses to be examined, concerning the actual falling of these stones on the 26th of May, 1751;--which witnesses were ready to testify all they affirmed, upon oath,--and one of them was Mr. George Marsich, Curate, as we should call him, of the parish.

According to their accounts; about six o'clock, in the afternoon of the day just mentioned, there was seen towards the east, a kind of fiery ball; which, after it had burst into two parts, with a great report, exceeding that of a cannon, fell from the sky, in the form, and appearance of _two chains_ entangled in one another:--and also with a loud noise, as of a great number of carriages rolled along. And after this a black smoke appeared; and a part of the ball seemed to fall in an arable field of one _Michael Koturnass_; on the fall of which to the ground a still greater noise was heard; and a shock perceived, something like an earthquake.

This piece was afterwards soon dug out of the ground; which had been particularly noted to be plain and level, and ploughed just before; but where it was now found to have made a great fissure, or cleft, an ell wide, whilst it singed the earth on the sides.

The other piece, which fell in a meadow, was also dug up; and weighed sixteen pounds.

And it is fairly observed, that the unadorned manner in which the whole account from _Agram_ is written; the agreement of the different witnesses, who had no reason to accord in a lie; and the similarity of this history to that of the _Eichstedt_ stone; makes it at least very probable, that there was indeed something real, and worth notice, in the account.

The _Eichstedt_ stone (somewhat like that said to have fallen so lately in Yorkshire) is described as having been composed of ash-grey sand stone, with fine grains intermixed all through it, partly of real native iron, and partly of yellowish brown ochre of iron: and as being about as hard as building stone.--It is said not to effervesce with acids, and evidently to consist of small particles of siliceous stone and iron.--It had also a solid malleable coat of native iron, as was supposed, quite free from sulphur, and about two lines thick; which quite covered its surface; resembling a blackish glazing. And the whole mass exhibited evident marks of having been exposed to fire.

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.

_Avicenna_ mentions, (Averrhoes, lib. 2do Meteor. cap. 2.) that he had seen at Cordova, in Spain, a sulphureous stone that had fallen from heaven.

In _Spangenberg_'s Chron. Saxon, an account is found, that at Magdeburg, in A. D. 998, two great stones, fell down in a storm of thunder: one in the town itself; the other near the Elbe, in the open country.

The well known, and celebrated _Cardan_, in his book, _De Varietate Rerum_, lib. 14. cap. 72. tells us, that he himself, in the year 1510, had seen one hundred and twenty stones fall from heaven; among which one weighed one hundred and twenty; and another sixty pounds. That they were mostly of an _iron colour_, and very hard, and smelt of brimstone. He remarks, moreover, that about three o'clock, a great fire was to be seen in the heavens; and that about five o'clock the stones fell down with a rushing noise.

And _Julius Scaliger_ (in his book _De Subtilitate Exerc._ p. 333.) affirms, that he had in his possession a piece of iron (as he calls it,) which had fallen from heaven in _Savoy_.

_Wolf_ (in _Lection. Memorab._ Tom. II. p. 911.) mentions a great triangular stone, described by _Sebastian Brandt_, (which seems to have been the identical stone I have already mentioned as having been preserved in the church of Anxissem,) and which was said to have fallen from heaven, in the year 1493, at Ensisheim or Ensheim.

_Muschenbroek_,[II] speaking of the same stone, says, that the stone was blackish, weighed about 300lb. and that marks of fire were to be seen upon it; but apprehended (in which he seems to have been mistaken) that the date of the fall was 1630.

_Chladni_ also mentions another instance (from _Nic. Huknanfii_ Hist. Hungar. lib. 20. fol. 394.) of five stones, said to have fallen from heaven at _Miscoz_, in Transylvania, in a terrible thunder storm and commotion of the air, which were as big as a man's head, very heavy, of a pale yellow, and iron, or rusty colour; and of a strong sulphureous smell; and that four of them were kept in the treasury room at Vienna.

He adds, (from _John Binbard_'s Thuring. Chron. p. 193.) that on the 26th of July, 1581, between one and two o'clock in the afternoon, a stone fell down in _Thuringia_, with a clap of thunder, which made the earth shake; at which time a small light cloud was to be seen, the sky being otherwise clear. It weighed 39lb.; was of a blue and brownish colour. It gave sparks, when struck with a flint, as steel does. It had sunk five quarters of an ell deep in the ground; so that the soil, at the time, was struck up to twice a man's height; and the stone itself was so hot, that no one could bear to touch it. It is said to have been afterwards carried to Dresden.

He adds, also, that in the 31st Essay of the Breslau Collections, p. 44, is found an account by Dr. _Rost_; that on the 22d of June, 1723, about two o'clock in the afternoon, in the country of Pleskowicz, some miles from _Reichstadt_, in Bohemia, a small cloud was seen, the sky being otherwise clear; whereupon, at one place twenty-five, at another eight, great and small stones fell down, with a loud report, and without any lightning being perceived. The stones appeared externally black, internally like a metallic ore, and smelt strongly of brimstone.

And I shall conclude all _Chladni_'s remarkable facts, in addition to those which I had myself collected, before ever I heard of his curious book, with a short summary of what he calls one of the _newest_ accounts of this kind, extracted from the _Histoire de l'Académie des Sciences_, 1769, p. 20.

It is an account of three masses, which fell down with thunder, in provinces very distant from one another; and which were sent to the Academy in 1769. They were sent from _Maine_, _Artois_, and _Cotentin_: and it is affirmed, that when they fell an hissing was heard; and that they were found hot. All three were like one another; all three were of the same colour, and nearly of the same grain; and small metallic and pyritical particles could be distinguished in them; and, externally, all three were covered with an hard ferruginous coat: and, on chemical investigation, they were found to contain iron, and sulphur.[JJ]

Considering, then, all these facts so positively affirmed, concerning these various, most curious phænomena:--the explosions;--the sparks;--the lights;--the hissing noises;--the stones seen to fall;--the stones dug up hot, and even smoking;--and some scorching, and even burning other bodies in their passage;--we cannot but also bring to remembrance, what Sir John Pringle affirmed to have been observed; concerning a fiery meteor, seen on Sunday, the 26th of November, 1758, in several parts of England and Scotland.[KK]

That the head, which appeared about half the diameter of the moon, was of a bright white, like iron when almost in a melting heat;[LL] the tail, which appeared about 8° in length, was of a duskish red, burst in the atmosphere, when the head was about 7° above the horizon, and disappeared; and in the room thereof were seen three bodies like stars, within the compass of a little more than three degrees from the head, which also kept descending with the head.

That before this, in another place, near Ancram in Scotland, (where the same meteor was seen) one-third of the tail, towards the extremity, appeared _to break off_, and to separate into sparks, resembling stars.--That soon after this the body of the meteor had its light extinguished, with an explosion; but, as it seemed to the observer there, _the form of the entire figure of the body, quite black, was seen to go still forwards in the air_.[MM] By some persons, also, an hissing noise[NN] was apprehended to be heard.

Whether this might, or might not be an ignited body, of the kind we have been describing, falling to the earth, deserves consideration. Sir John Pringle seems to have been convinced that it was really _a solid substance_; but fairly adds,[OO] that if such meteors had really ever fallen to the earth, there must have been, long ago, so strong evidence of the fact, as to leave no room to doubt.

Perhaps, in the preceding accounts, we have such evidence, _now_ fairly collected together; at least in a certain degree.

I take all the facts, just as I find them affirmed. I have preserved a faithful and an honest record.

For the sake of possible philosophical use;--let the philosophical, and curious just preserve these facts in remembrance.

For the sake of philological advantage;--let the discerning weigh, and judge. For (if such things be,) what has so often come to pass, according to what is commonly called _the usual course of nature_; may most undoubtedly, henceforth, without any hesitating doubts, be believed to have been brought to pass, on an extraordinary occasion, in a still more tremendous manner, by the immediate _fiat of the Almighty_.