Jackson.] 228 



By authority of the Secretary of the Treasury, the U. S. steam cut- 

 ter Shubrick was placed at the disposal of Dr. John Torrey for our 

 voyage down the coast to Santa Barbara county, whither we went to 

 make some general explorations of the country and to settle the vexed 

 question as to the existence of petroleum springs in the mountains. 

 While in bivouac near Mupu on the Ojai ranch, on Wednesday, July 

 12th, at 7.29 P. M., we were suddenly startled by a burst of intense 

 light, and looking to the north-westward saw a magnificent mete- 

 orite passing through the heavens and toward the north-east. It left a 

 long train of brilliant sparks and was itself of the apparent magnitude 

 of a six-pound cannon ball. The time of its transit was eight seconds, 

 while the illuminated train remained visible twelve minutes, and set- 

 tled so slowly that I had ample time to measure its angle of elevation, 

 by means of a clinometer, the only instrument, for the purpose, I had 

 at hand. This angle I found to be 21° from the horizon. It was ob- 

 served that the portion of the meteor's train which showed the largest 

 sparks settled more rapidly toward the earth than its other parts, so 

 that it formed a bow downwards in its middle. The train was ob- 

 served to waver, as if from currents of air, and from all the phenom- 

 ena, we think the atmosphere, where the meteorite passed, possessed 

 some considerable density and powers of resistance. On returning to 

 San Francisco, a notice of our observations regarding this meteorite 

 was published in the mining and scientific press of that city, with mem- 

 oranda of points, upon which information was desired, from other ob- 

 servers, to aid in the determination of the position of this remarkable 

 object. In reply we soon obtained from the Grass Valley Union 

 newspaper the observations made by a surveyor, who was on his way 

 from Virginia City to Grass Valley, and was thirty miles south of Vir- 

 ginia City, Nevada, on the overland route, three hundred and fifty miles 

 north of our point of observation. He saw the meteorite at the same time 

 we did, and south-eastward of his point of observation and at an esti- 

 mated angle of 20° above the horizon. Allowing his observation to 

 be approximatively correct, we have for the height of the meteorite, 

 by computation of the triangle with corrections for refraction and 

 curvature of the earth, forty-five and a half miles ; its distance 

 from us, one hundred and eighty-two miles, and from him, one hun- 

 dred and ninety miles, while the point on the surface of the earth di- 

 rectly under the meteorite was one hundred and sixty-nine and nine- 

 tenths miles from us, and one hundred and seventy-eight and a half 

 miles from him. 



It is seldom that we can obtain even so imperfect data as the above 

 for computation of a meteorite, since the observer, startled by so bril- 

 liant an apparition in the heavens, is not likely to think at once of the 

 importance of observations to determine the position of the object. 



