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LV. Notice of the great Meteor seen on June 29tL 

 By R. Edmonds, Jun. 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Journal. 



Gentlemen, 

 nPHE meteor of June 29th is spoken of by all in this neigh- 

 -*■ bourhood who saw it, as by far the most sublime spectacle 

 they have ever beheld. 



The weather for the last two or three days had been very 

 sultry, with little or no winds or clouds. On the night of the 

 29th the sky was cloudless, and the air, in the lower regions of 

 the atmosphere, almost motionless, thevanepointing nearly east. 

 At eleven o'clock, while walking towards the west, in an open 

 place near this town, a bright light suddenly shone around 

 me. I instantly turned to my left, and at S.E. by S., at an 

 elevation of between 30° and 40°, I beheld an intensely white 

 ball of fire, neai'ly as large as the meridian moon, and taper- 

 ing upwards into a tremulous or vibratory tail, eight or ten 

 times longer than its greatest transverse diameter. The me- 

 teor seemed to have no horizontal motion, but to be descend- 

 ing very slowly and majestically in a perpendicular direction 

 to the earth, at the distance of only a few hundred feet. 

 Words can convey no idea of its sublimity. It was visible for 

 ten or twelve seconds, and then disappeared, hidden, no 

 doubt, behind an eminence about a mile from me. I conti- 

 nued out for half an hour afterwards, but heard no report or 

 sound of any kind proceeding from the meteor. Although 

 the nights are now less dark than in any other part of the 

 year, the eye could scarcely endure the excessive splendour. 



A gentleman, who happened to be looking in the direction 

 of the meteor when it first appeared, and who was then tra- 

 velling on a coach, twenty-five miles east of this place, over a 

 plain bounded only by the horizon, and who consequently 

 saw it a second or more both before and after myself, informed 

 me, that at its first appearance it was in the direction already 

 stated, at an elevation of about 40°; that it appeared very 

 near, and to descend very slowly, without any horizontal mo- 

 tion ; that it was first of an intense blue colour, and of the 

 size and form of an Gg^g, with its small end upwards, accom- 

 panied with a long luminous train, extending also upwards, 

 and perfectly similar to the train of an ordinary shooting-star; 

 that it soon lost the train, and became a vivid white ball of 

 fire ; that it then seemed to burst, or to expand into a round- 

 ish but irregular form of a reddish hue, four or five feet in 

 diameter ; and finally disappeared, as if it had fallen to the 

 earth, within the limits of the horizon. The gentleman with- 



