358 Mr. J. Glaisher's additional Observations on 



can have no doubt as to the place it occupied when I saw it, 

 as the point is determined by the space between two particu- 

 lar houses. The noise that I heard afterwards was within, I 

 should certainly say, one minute after the explosion. Mr^ 

 Whitbread, with great reason, suspects that I was not in a fit 

 state to determine this ; but I was not really alarmed till I 

 heard the report, which was very loud and continued, and 

 which was the chief cause of terror, happening with the most 

 brilliant starlight. I ho\yever was collected enough to observe 

 my watch, and I was in a hurry to reach home. The distance 

 I walked between the explosion and the first rumbling of the 

 report was about 80 to 100 yards. I usually walk at the rate 

 of four miles an hour, and according to this calculation the 

 meteor when it exploded was about thirteen miles from me." 



XXXIX. Rugby. Second communication from the Rev. 

 H. Highton. 



" The account which I gave you before of the meteor of 

 Feb. 1 1 th, was obtained by taking down the accounts of such 

 persons who in different parts of the town were walking at 

 that time, and afterwards going myself and stepping the di- 

 stances, which were accurately given me, together with an 

 estimate of the pace they were walking at. 



" Since that, however, I have gone over the ground in 

 company with each, making them point out as nearly as pos- 

 sible the points at which the meteor appeared to them to 

 be. This more careful process leads to the following material 

 alterations from my former account: — 



" 1. Though they told me that it passed straight over head, 

 yet 1 find that was not the case, but that it passed from W. 

 to E. at an angle of about 20° below the zenith, or 70° above 

 the southern horizon. 



"2. The time during which the light lasted was at least 

 50 seconds. The person who told me that he kept walk- 

 ing fast without stopping, through a space taking only 20 se- 

 conds to walk, must have been mistaken, and stopped on his 

 way unconsciously to look at it. The duration, measured by 

 the space walked over by the other person, was at least 

 50 seconds, and might have been 70 seconds. 



" 3. The point of the explosion was nearly due S.E.* 

 (reckoning the magnetic and not the true meridian), and at an 

 angle of about 20"^ from the horizon; so that it must have 

 been at a very considerable distance from Rugby. This was 

 what the narrator had called at first * a few yards.' 



* The variation of the compass at Rugby is 23° 15' j therefore the 

 azimuth was 68° 16'E. ofS. 



