400 Miscellanies. 
meteor traversed an arc of about 50° toward the 8. W. point of the 
horizon, passing several degrees westward of Fomalhaut, and disap- 
pearing in the distance at an altitude of about 10°. The preceding 
part of the body of the meteor appeared intensely white, and the fol- 
lowing part of a deep blue; a brush of light 2° or 3° long, was left 
near and a litttle above 6 Aquarii, and remained visible more than 
ninety seconds. At New Haven, the meteor was first seen about half 
a degree below the Pleiades, and disappeared midway between @ and @ 
Ceti, leaving a trail 8° or 10° long, near the Whale’s head. This trail 
remained visible full three minutes. The meteor was two or three sec- 
onds in passing, and some thought it had a well-defined disk 3’ or 4’ in 
diameter. 
These observations are too vague to justify much labor in calcula- 
tions founded upon them, but a simple geometrical construction of the 
case gives the following results. 
The meteor was twenty five to thirty five rods in diameter, and was 
first noticed by Mr. Bond. It was then over Plymouth, forty one miles 
S. 31° E. of Boston, at an altitude of sixty five miles and a quarter. 
It moved S. 27° W. 31 miles, and was seen at New Haven, when 
Buzzard’ 's Bay, twenty four miles W. of Holmes’s Hole, and 
same course fifty miles further it began to leave a trail of light, 
off Sinise Point. This trail was sixteen or eighteen miles long, and 
was something really left at that place only, since the meteor was then 
twenty or thirty miles farther from Mr. Bond than at the beginning of 
its course, and the trail being seen at that part of the track could not 
have been caused by its proximity. Finally, after a run of one hundred 
and fifty three miles, it disappeared over the ocean in lat. 40° 7/ N. and 
long. 71° 16’ W., at the same altitude as when first observed. The same 
point of disappearance was noticed both by Mr. Bond and at New Ha- 
ven, proving that the meteor suddenly became invisible, and was not 
merely lost in the distance. The velocity of this body was very great. 
According to the New Haven estimate of the time of its flight, its appa 
rent velocity was not less than fifty miles-per second. The tangent of 
this part of the ecliptic being inclined to the track of the meteor at an 
angle of about 19°, would make a deduction of about sixteen miles for 
the earth’s motion,—more than a hundred times swifter than a cannon- 
ball. Twelve minutes at that rate would carry it round the a = and 
five weeks would carry it far beyond the sun. 
_It must however be remembered, that these results are call not 
