The VLA Galactic Plane Survey ( VGPS ) of the first Galactic quadrant was searched for H I emission with velocities well above the maximum velocity allowed by Galactic rotation .
A sample of 17 small fast-moving clouds was identified .
The distribution of the ensemble of clouds in longitude and velocity indicates that the clouds are part of the Galactic disk , despite their large forbidden velocity .
The median angular diameter of the clouds detected in the VGPS is 3 \farcm 4 .
These clouds would not be noticed in previous low resolution surveys because of strong beam dilution .
Assuming each cloud is located at the tangent point , a median cloud has a diameter of 10 pc , H I mass of 60 M _ { \odot } , and a velocity more than 25 km s ^ { -1 } beyond the local terminal velocity derived from ^ { 12 } CO observations .
Three clouds in the sample have a velocity between 50 and 60 km s ^ { -1 } in excess of the local terminal velocity .
The longitude distribution of the sample peaks near l = 30 ^ { \circ } , while the latitude distribution of the clouds is nearly flat .
The observed longitude and latitude distributions are compared with simulated distributions taking into account the selection criteria of the cloud search .
It is found that the number of clouds declines with distance from the Galactic center , with an exponential scale length 2.8 - 8 kpc at the 99 % confidence level .
We find a lower limit to the scale height of the clouds of 180 pc ( HWHM ) , but the true value is likely significantly higher .