S E C T I O N III.
F I E R Y M E T E O R S .
FIERY
METEORS
Firjl, U R atftiofphere Is not only frequently charged with
aqueous particles, which are productive o f different appearances
and various changes o f the weather, but there are befides,
& many heterogeneous particles difperfed through the whole mafs
o f the circumambient air, that we are not yet apprized o f the quantity
and variety o f them. Accurate obfervers difcover from time to
time fome new ones, and make us -acquainted with their effeCts,
when varioufly combined. T h e eleCtrie matter has been found often
to be one o f the curious and powerful ingredients, that enter the
mixture o f the atmofphere. This matter caufes in various ihftances
different phenomena. L ightning and T i-iunder are in all parts
o f the .Globe .caufed by it. However we heard from1 the inhabitants
o f Str Helena, who were born there, and grown up to a good old
age, that they never had obferved a thunder ftorm on their happy
iile. As the higheft hills on it , and all the' rocks furrounding it, are
a kind o f lava or vitrified flags o f drofs, which I fuppofe are,’ like
all vitrefcent bodies, eleCtrie perfe, or non-conduCtors; the electricity
o f the atmofphere is perhaps not conducted by them, and caufes
therefore :no explofion.
T h e
r 19;
Th e ifles in theSouth-Sea are, as far as we know, fubjett to light- f i e r y
fling and thunder ftorms • for we experienced, fome at. different METE0K*
places and feafons, in the lèverai parts o f our voyage over this ocean-;
ànd wè were now andthen obliged to fix the eleCtrie chain, toprevent
fatal accidents. Once at O-Taheitee, the man, who was fentup to
the main top-gallant malt head,, had fcàrcely fixed the chain, and
another man was ftill clearing it o f the main-chains and Ihrouds,
when the latter' received ad. eleCtrie Ihbck, and the fire Was' feen
running down, the chain into the . water, without doing- any
damage-..
■ Secondly, on Auguft the 17th, 1772, after we-had le ft St. Jago, at
eight o’Clock in the evening, we obferved à fiery meteor, of an oblong
lhape, a bright but blueilh light,, and defending towards the North
Weft,and then moving in. an ohlique direction, towards the horizon:
its duration was- momentaheous. ' We: had about that time, frequent
Ihowers o f rain, attended with fudden and violent gulls of
wind, both before and after its appearance.
On the .30th of September, 17 7 4 , at half anhour after feven.o’clock
in the evening, after we had left the’ South Baft point o f Caledonia
and Pine Illand, all thofe that were on the deck obferved to the Northward,
a luminous globe, o f the fize and hrightnefs o f the fun moving
downwards with great velocity towards the horizon. - Its light
was pale,, and it burft without any explofion whatfocvec; for all the
àoiiè: