* Astronomy

1813.--August or September.--Malpas, Cheshire.
Dr. T. Thomson, in his Annals of Philosophy for November, 1813, states that he received some weeks previously a letter from Chester, dated the 15th of September, containing the following information, which the writer says was first communicated to the public in a provincial newspaper. He does not give the date ; but merely quotes the following passage from the newspaper, in the words of the anonymous writer of that article.- " Last week having occasion to go to Malpas (a village 15 miles from Chester), I witnessed a very singular phenomenon. About one o'clock in the day, from the great heat and calmness of the air, I apprehended a thunder storm, and supposed my apprehensions were going to be realized, when I beheld a bright cloud, out of which fell some large stones, which were soft and intensely hot at first, but afterwards acquired considerable hardness." Dr. Thomson adds :--" I am not aware that any of the stones in question have been brought to London. These phenomena have been of rare occurrence in Great Britain of late ; but five or six examples of similar tails on the continent, during the years 1811 and 1812 have been recorded, and the stones subjected to chemical analysis."

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