370 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



about 90 degrees in twenty minutes of time. Although it had now 

 become a faint nebulous light, yet it continued to exhibit a well-defined 

 boundary until past ten o'clock, having been under observation more 

 than an hour ; I have never met with any account of a single meteor 

 having been visible for so long a time. 



" From the observations communicated by the Hon. William Mitch- 

 ell, of Nantucket, combined with our own, we have ascertained that 

 the vertical height of this meteor above the surface of the earth was 

 about fifty miles, and its distance from Cambridge one hundred miles 

 in a northeastern direction. We have accounts of its having been 

 seen from near Albany, Brooklyn, Providence, Nantucket, Man- 

 chester, Cape Ann, Portland, Boscawen, Plymouth, and Peterboro', 

 N. H., Quebec, on the St. Lawrence, and the interior stations, Spring- 

 field, Framingham, and Lancaster, Mass., and Norwich, Conn., as 

 well as on Long Island Sound." It was also seen in South Deerfield 

 and Littleton, N. H. 



BRILLIANT METEOR. 



A MOST brilliant and remarkable meteor, yielding light sufficient to 

 illuminate every place situated within the distance of two hundred 

 miles of it, was seen in the South of England on the night of February 

 11. Mr. Glaisher, of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, has deduced 

 the following results respecting it, from a large number of observations 

 made in different parts of the country. The meteor first made its ap- 

 pearance in a position S or 9 W. of N. and at an estimated distance 

 of 84 miles from the earth. During the first part of its progress it very 

 rapidly descended obliquely towards the earth, in such a manner, that 

 at first it was between 80 and 90 miles from the earth, and less than 

 50 miles distant within 4 seconds afterwards, the two places over which 

 it was vertical at these times being separated by about 17 miles ; it 

 then descended less rapidly, until, when over a locality 110 miles from 

 the place of first observation, its distance from the earth being 19 

 miles, it exploded, with a sound like thunder, and sufficiently loud to 

 be noticed at places at a distance exceeding 50 miles. After the ex- 

 plosion, the luminous fragments into which it separated were seen un- 

 til within ten miles of the earth. From the most careful and moderate 

 calculations, Mr. Glaisher considers the diameter of the meteor to have 

 been from 1,800 to 2,000 feet. Its light was so brilliant, that some per- 

 sons compared it to strong sunlight, and even at places where the sky 

 was covered with thick clouds, the light was so strong as to fully illu- 

 minate every object. From the time of its first appearance to the time 

 of its explosion an interval elapsed of about 11 seconds. In conclusion 

 Mr. Glaisher observes, "The report accompanying the explosion of 

 this body was so great, that I am inclined to believe that its substance 

 was of a firm texture, broken into many pieces by the extraordinary 

 expansion of an elastic fluid. It seems also certain, that it must have 

 come from the regions of space far beyond the influence of our va- 

 pors ; and this fact, together with its extreme velocity and the inten- 

 sity of the light, are circumstances more conformable to a solid than to 

 a gaseous substance." Brcwstcr's Magazine. 



