416 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



The main facts connected with this interesting phenomenon, collected from 

 numerous and widely separated observers, arc as follows : By observers, 

 generally, north of Albany, the meteor is described as appearing in the 

 south-east, at an elevation of from 45 to 00 ; thence passed rapidly to the 

 south, and disappeared a little west of south at an elevation of from 10 J to 

 15. Its course, throughout its visible range, was marked by a heavy train, 

 or trail of smoke, which continued visible for some little time after the meteor 

 itself had disappeared; and, at two or three points in its course, large vol- 

 umes of smoke were observed to form, as if the result of successive explo- 

 sions. These volumes of smoke were noticed to be in a state of great agi- 

 tation, and in size were compared to the cloud of smoke produced by the 

 discharge of a six-pounder. 



To observers, generally, south of Albany (twenty miles distant, or more), 

 the meteor was first seen in the north-east, and disappeared in the north- 

 west, a fact which indicates the path of the body to have been nearly coin- 

 cident with the parallel of Albany. 



A few moments after the disappearance of the meteor, the lapse of time 

 being variously estimated, by differently located observers, at from thirty 

 seconds to two minutes, two or three loud and successive explosions or 

 reports were heard, accompanied with prolonged echoes, and a violent con- 

 cussion. These sounds have been compared by some to sharp and heavy 

 peals of thunder, to the report attending the explosion of a powder-mill, or 

 steam-boiler, and also to the heavy rumbling of carriages crossing a bridge. 

 In the city of Troy, the concussion and jarring was sufficiently intense to 

 suggest, generally, the idea of an earthquake; people walking the streets 

 involuntarily stopped, and for a moment nearly ever}- occupation was sus- 

 pended. At Schaghticoke, X. Y., and Bennington, Vt., where powder-mills 

 are in operation, the report was referred to explosions at the works; and at 

 the former place, when the managers of the works ascertained that no explo- 

 sion of mills had taken place, either in their own town or in Bennington, 

 they at once concluded that a train of powder- wagons, which started some 

 hours previously for Troy, had blown up on the road, and messengers were 

 at once despatched in search of information. At Eagle Bridge, on the Troy 

 and Bennington Railroad, the concussion was forcible enough to jar the win- 

 dows and shake the seats of a train of cars in motion. At Greenbush, oppo- 

 site Albany, numbers of people rushed to the docks, under the supposition 

 that a passing steamboat had exploded her boiler. The noise and concussion 

 also appear to have been noticed, to nearly an equal extent, at points sixty 

 miles east of the Hudson; while the whole area over which the sound is 

 positively known to have been heard with distinctness, was upwards of two 

 thousand square miles. 



The area of country, on the other hand, over whieh the meteor was seen, 

 was, as might have been expected, much larger than the area over which the 

 explosions were heard, being, at least, equal to six thousand square miles. 

 Thus, observations were made upon it at Morristown, Lamoile County, Ver- 

 mont, twenty-five miles north of Montpelier, and at South Manchester, 

 Connecticut, a point nearly two hundred miles south ; it was also observed 

 at localities west of the Hudson River, and at various points from thirty to 

 sixty miles east of the Hudson. Within a radius of thirty miles north-east 

 and south-east of Troy, it was probably observed by every person out of 

 doors, who was at the time looking in the southerly direction ; j*et such is 

 the unreliability of human testimony as regards natural phenomena, that 



