•^31 



OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. O 



" From these data, rude and imperfect as they necessarily are, I 

 conclude that a mass of matter nearly spherical, one hundred and five 

 feet in diameter, entered the earth's atmosphere in a direction from 

 west to east, passed the town of Nantucket, with great obliquity, at the 

 distance of nearly 6 miles, and impinged upon the earth's surface 19|- 

 miles east of the town, in the Atlantic ocean, 14 miles east of the 

 island. 



" Whether this mass was solid or fluid is uncertain ; and yet we can 

 hardly suppose that a gaseous body, when rushing through the atmos- 

 phere, would have maintained so constantly its globular form, as indi- 

 cated by its circular appearance ; nor are we prepared to admit, that 

 one liquid mass impinging on another would produce a report, which, 

 at the distance of twenty miles, would be so sharp and jarring, that 

 many persons should think it an earthquake. My own opinion is, 

 formed from evidence of which the foregoing is a mere brief, that a 

 solid mass of matter, of no inconsiderable size, fell upon the earth on 

 that occasion." 



Professor Peirce communicated the following letter from 

 Mr. Sears C. Walker to himself. 



" Washington, D. C, March 6th, 1848. 

 " I have computed the small corrections of the elliptic elements of 

 the planet Neptune, which you were so kind as to communicate to 

 the American Academy in December last. 



dn = — l 8 56.43. 



d9. = — 14.22. 



di =— 0.57. 



de =+0.000014205. 



d^ =1 0".0. 



dM z= ^ 47".84. 



dT = O.O'-. 

 These corrections, applied to the first approximation, furnish the second 

 approximation towards the elliptic elements of Neptune. 



71 z= 47 12 6.50 



mean equinox, Jan. 1, 1847. 



^ = 130 4 20.81 . 



i z= 1 46 58.97. 



e = 0.00871946. 



^i rr21."55448. 



M = 328° 32' 44".20, mean noon, Greenwich, Jan. I, 1847. 



T = 164.6181 tropical years. 



