Kirkwood.J bJZ [March m, 



correspondents were insufficient to determine, even approximately, the 

 orbit of tlic meteor. In response to this note a communitulion was re- 

 ceived from E. Lyon Linsley, of Stratford, Connecticut, who, on the same 

 evening and nearly at the same hour, had observed a large fireball, and 

 who sui)posed it to be identical with that seen in Michigan. The following 

 is an extract from the Stratford letter : 



"I saw tliis brilliant meteor here, on the evening of July 8tli, at about 

 nine o'clock. It was then about eight degrees from the polar star, and 

 close to the faint nortiiernmost visible star in the constellation Cmnehpar- 

 ditlis. Whether it expired then and there or disappeared behind an angle 

 of the roof, I am unable to say ; viewing it as I did from an Eastern 

 portico, which was suddenly all aglow with its celestial light, and seeing 

 meteor and illumination each but for a moment." 



The slightest examination shows that the bolide here described was 

 different from that seen in Michigan and the adjoining States on the same 

 evening. We conclude accordingly that two fireballs of great brilliancy 

 were simultaneously observed. Were they cometary fragments whose 

 orbit intersects that of the earth near the 288th degree of longitude? It is 

 a remarkable coincidence that on the 8th of July, 1856, somewiiat earlier 

 in the evening, a large fireball was seen in Alabama and Mississippi, which, 

 like the meteor first described, left a luminous train that remained visible 

 a considerable time near the terminus of its track.* It may also be men- 

 tioned as an additional coincidence that a meteoric stone-full occurred in 

 Spain on the 8th of July, 1811. 



III. • 



The Fireball of December 16, 1876. 



A large majority of the meteorites which reach the earth's surface must 

 doubtless fall into the ocean, though the phenomena of their descent are 

 very rarely witnessed. An occurrence of this kind was observed, however, 

 according to the San Francisco daily papers, on Saturday morning, De- 

 cember 16, 1876, about fifteen minutes before one o'clock, when a large 

 meteoric fireball appeared over the Pacific Ocean westward from San 

 Francisco. When first seen it was rapidly descending towards the surface 

 of the ocean, its apparent path making a large angle with the horizontal 

 plane. It had been visible but a few seconds when it plunged into the 

 Pacific at ajiparently no great distance from the shore. The fall was fol- 

 lowed by a loud detonation. 



IV. 



The Meteor of December 21, 1876. 



On Thursday evening, December 21, 1876, about seventeen minutes 

 liefore nine o'clock, Bloomington time, a meteor of extraordinary magni- 

 tude passed over the States of Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, 



See Am. Journ. Scl. for November, 1856, and January and May, 18">7. 



