t a celestial character."

I'm sure--not positively, of course--that we've tried to be as easygoing
and lenient with Mr. Symons as his obviously scientific performance
would permit. Of course it may be that sub-consciously we were
prejudiced against him, instinctively classing him with St. Augustine,
Darwin, St. Jerome, and Lyell. As to the "thunderstones," I think that
he investigated them mostly "for the credit of Englishmen," or in the
spirit of the Royal Krakatoa Committee, or about as the commission from
the French Academy investigated meteorites. According to a writer in
_Knowledge_, 5-418, the Krakatoa Committee attempted not in the least to
prove what had caused the atmospheric effects of 1883, but to
prove--that Krakatoa did it.

Altogether I should think that the following quotation should be
enlightening to anyone who still thinks that these occurrences were
investigated not to support an opinion formed in advance:

In opening his paper, Mr. Symons says that he undertook his
investigation as to the existence of "thunderstones," or "thunderbolts"
as he calls them--"feeling certain that there was a weak point
somewhere, inasmuch as 'thunderbolts' have no existence."

We have another instance of the reported fall of a "cannon ball." It
occurred prior to Mr. Symons' investigations, but is not mentioned by
him. It was investigated, however. In the _Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin._,
3-147, is the report of a "thunderstone," "supposed to have fallen in
Hampshire, Sept., 1852." It was an iron cannon ball, or it was a "large
nodule of iron pyrites or bisulphuret of iron." No one had seen it fall.
It had been noticed, upon a garden path, for the first time, after a
thunderstorm. It was only a "supposed" thing, because--"It had not the
character of any known meteorite."

In the London _Times_, Sept. 16, 1852, appears a letter from Mr. George
E. Bailey, a chemist of Andover, Hants. He says that, in a very heavy
thunderstorm, of the first week of September, 1852, this iron object,
had fallen in the garden of Mr. Robert Dowling, of Andover; that it had
fallen upon a path "within six yards of the house." It had been picked
up "immediately" after the storm by Mrs. Dowling. It was about the size
of a cricket ball: weight four pounds. No one had seen it fall. In the
_Times_, Sept. 15, 1852, there is an account of this thunderstorm, which
was of unusual violence.

There are some other data relative to the ball of quartz of
Westmor