collect instances of "ball lightning," to express that they are
instances of objects that have fallen from the sky, luminously,
exploding terrifically. So bewildered is the old orthodoxy by these
phenomena that many scientists have either denied "ball lightning" or
have considered it very doubtful. I refer to Dr. Sestier's list of one
hundred and fifty instances, which he considered authentic.

In accord with our disaccord is an instance related in the _Monthly
Weather Review_, March, 1887--something that fell luminously from the
sky, accompanied by something that was not so affected, or that was
dark:

That, according to Capt. C.D. Sweet, of the Dutch bark, _J.P.A._, upon
March 19, 1887, N. 37 deg. 39', W. 57 deg. 00', he encountered a severe storm.
He saw two objects in the air above the ship. One was luminous, and
might be explained in several ways, but the other was dark. One or both
fell into the sea, with a roar and the casting up of billows. It is our
acceptance that these things had entered this earth's atmosphere,
having first crashed through a field of ice--"immediately afterward
lumps of ice fell."

One of the most astonishing of the phenomena of "ball lightning" is a
phenomenon of many meteorites: violence of explosion out of all
proportion to size and velocity. We accept that the icy meteorites of
Dhurmsalla could have fallen with no great velocity, but the sound from
them was tremendous. The soft substance that fell at the Cape of Good
Hope was carbonaceous, but was unburned, or had fallen with velocity
insufficient to ignite it. The tremendous report that it made was heard
over an area more than seventy miles in diameter.

That some hailstones have been formed in a dense medium, and violently
disintegrate in this earth's relatively thin atmosphere:

_Nature_, 88-350:

Large hailstones noted at the University of Missouri, Nov. 11, 1911:
they exploded with sounds like pistol shots. The writer says that he had
noticed a similar phenomenon, eighteen years before, at Lexington,
Kentucky. Hailstones that seemed to have been formed in a denser medium:
when melted under water they gave out bubbles larger than their central
air spaces. (_Monthly Weather Review_, 33-445.)

Our acceptance is that many objects have fallen from the sky, but that
many of them have disintegrated violently. This acceptance will
co-ordinate with data still to come, but, also, we make it easy for
ourselves in our expressions upon s