Progress of Science respect'mg Igneous Meteors in 1823. 287 



benefited, and the security of all classes of shipping very ma- 

 terially promoted thereby, — I have it in command to acquaint 

 you, that it has been resolved to present you with the sum of 

 two hundred pounds, as a mark of the high sense the Elder 

 Brethren entertain of the merits and practical utility of so im- 

 portant a discovery. I am, sir, &c. 



To Peter Barlow, Esq. J. Herbert, Secretary. 



XL VIII. A Sketch of the Progress of Science respecting Igneous 

 Meteors and Meteorites during the Year 1823,- including an 

 Account of the principal Phenomena of that Nature observed 

 during the same Period : with Inquiries suggested by those Sub- 

 jects. By E. W. Brayley, junior, A.L.S., and Member of 

 the Meteorological Society. 



[Continued from p. 119.] 

 T^O return, however, to the phenomena of the American 

 -*■ meteor itself: — Professor Dean, after determining the an- 

 gular values of the observations made upon it by Capt. Ward- 

 ner and Col. Page, proceeded to calculate from them, accord- 

 ing to the rule given by Dr. Bowditch, its actual situations 

 when they were made, and thence the direction of its motion ; 

 with its altitude, absolute diameter, and velocity. The direc- 

 tion of its path, as already stated, he found to have been south 

 34-° west: at its first brilliant coruscation, as observed by 

 Capt. W., it was about forty-one miles above the earth, or 

 according to Col. Page, only thirty-four ; over the unsettled 

 part of Essex county, New- York, about fifteen miles west of 

 Crown-point; lat. 43° 54', long. 73° 47': at its disappearance 

 from the former gentleman, behind the ridge of a house, its 

 elevation appeared to have been about twenty-nine miles ; over 

 the western part of Schoharie county, in lat. 42° 45', long. 

 74° 49'. " But altitudes estimated under the impression which 

 such a phenomenon cannot fail to produce," Prof. Dean justly 

 observes, " must be considered as very uncertain, whatever 

 may be the judgement and fidelity of the observers." He then 

 states the length of the meteor's path, as probably determined 

 from these observations ; which has likewise been given in a 

 former page of this memoir. 



" I hardly dare," he continues, " to make any estimate of 

 its velocity. I have heard no estimate of the duration of the 

 nppearance of the body of the meteor greater than five seconds; 

 .iiid this would imply a velocity much greater than that of the 

 Baitll in its orbit." At Salem, in Washington county, New- 

 York, however, where the observers do not appear to have 



witnessed 



