118 Progress of Science respecting Igneous Meteors. 



sparkling, east of Sirius, and disappeared, apparently by ex- 

 tinction. The report produced by the explosion is said by 

 Mr. Doty to have resembled the noise of distant cannon : at 

 Trov in the state of New York two distinct explosions were 

 heard, with a very short interval of time ; and the sound 

 reached the ear of another observer at the same place in about 

 seven minutes and a half after the disappearance of the 

 meteor. At Herkimer, in the same state, an explosion was 

 heard from the south, about four minutes after the meteor had 

 passed, which resembled the discharge of four or five pieces 

 of artillery. At Ballston Spa, two, and some say three, re- 

 ports were heard on its disappearance. 



The explosion, according to Mr. Doty, sensibly affected 

 several houses, and was followed by a strong sulphurous smell 

 that lasted fifteen or twenty minutes. 



The luminous track left in the atmosphere by this meteor, 

 is among the most curious phenomena it displayed, and 

 shows, in a particular manner, its affinity with some other 

 meteoric appearances. At Troy it left a luminous track in 

 the heavens, which was not totally extinguished in several 

 minutes after the meteor disappeared: the Sangersfield In- 

 telligencer states that it left in its train an astonishing mass of 

 livid fire, which remained after the explosion for the space of 

 ten minutes, and then gradually disappeared like the i*ain- 

 bow : according to the Bridgeport Courier, after moving with 

 great velocity from north-east to south-west, " it left a trail of 

 immense size and peculiar brightness :" Captain Wardner of 

 Windsor, in the state of Vermont, describes it as leaving in 

 its passage a dusky reddish track, which continued, especially 

 about the middle of its length, for two minutes. At Quebec 

 the track assumed the form of an arched chain of fire, vividly 

 delineated in the heavens, and concaving towards the earth; 

 which disappeared in a minute or two. 



The meteors with which these circumstances more particu- 

 larly connect the present, are those which were seen, respec- 

 tively, at Geneva and many other places, May 15, 1811; at 

 Angers, Loudon, and Poitiers, producing a meteoric stone, 

 June 3, 1822 ; and at Paris, Caen, and other places on the 6th of 

 August in the same year. The first, as described by Professor 

 Pictet, was a kind of serpent of fire, bent back at the west 

 end, so as to approach the figure of the letter S ; which be- 

 came spread out in the lower part, and then successively as- 

 suming the shapes of a horse-shoe and a parabola, diminishing 

 in brightness every instant, became reduced in seven or eight 

 minutes to two bright points ; and was then concealed by a 

 cloud. The meteor of the 3d of June 1822, as seen from 



Poitiers 



