METEORITES OF NORTH AMERICA. 331 



are many witnesses who relate that a few minutes before any report was heard they saw a large ball of fire pass across 

 the northern sky toward the northwest. By tracing out the line along which the reports were loudest and seemed to 

 proceed from the zenith, I am led to the conclusion that the meteor passed over the eastern end of Washington County, 

 then across the interior of Noble County, then over the southwestern corner of Guernsey and northeastern corner of 

 Muskingum, with a direction of about 42 west of north. 



2. Its height above the earth. Mi. William C. Welles, of Parkereburg, Virginia (lat. 39 1(X, long. 81 24'), a gentle- 

 man of liberal education, testifies that being about 3 miles east of that place at the time of the occurrence he hap- 

 pened to look up to the northeast of him, and saw a meteor of- great size and brilliancy emerging from behind one 

 cloud and disappearing behind another. When about 35 east of north he thinks its altitude was 65. Now the dis- 

 tance in a direction 35 east of north from his station to the line directly under the meteor's path is 20 miles. Calcu- 

 lating from these data I find for the vertical height, taken to the nearest unit, 43 miles. This was to a point in Wash- 

 ington County near the border of Noble. . 



Mr. C. Hackley testifies that he saw the meteor from Berlin in Jackson County. It crossed a cloudless space in 

 the northeast, and he thinks its altitude at the highest point was 30. Now the distance from Berlin to the nearest 

 point under the meteor's path is 70 miles. These data give nearly 41 miles for its vertical height over Neble County, 

 a few miles to the south of Sarahsville (lat. 39 53', long. 81 40 7 ). 



Many other reliable witnesses have been found who saw the meteor through openings in the clouds from various 

 points west of its path, and whose testimony so far agrees with the foregoing as to give results ranging between 37 and 44 

 miles. Care has been taken as far as possible to verify the data in each case by personal examination of the witnesses. 

 The angles have in most instances been taken as pointed out by them from their respective posts of observation. It 

 is unfortunate that no case has come to our knowledge in which the meteor was seen from the region east of its path. 

 But it was a circumstance in some respects favorable to the definiteness of the observations made from the west side 

 that the observers in nearly all cases saw the meteor only at one point, or within a small space on the heavens. It is 

 impossible to reconcile the various accounts without granting that its path was very nearly as above described, and 

 that its height did not vary far from 40 miles as it crossed Noble County. 



In regard to the time which intervened, at different places, between seeing the fireball and hearing the report, the 

 statements are so vague that not much reliance has been placed upon them. It may be remarked, however, that they 

 will essentially agree with the foregoing conclusions if we suppose that the loudest explosion took place in the southern 

 part of Noble County. 



I will add under this head the statement of Mr. Joel Richardson, of Warren, Washington County, who from a place 

 6 miles west of Marietta saw the meteor as much as 15 or 20 west of north at an altitude of about 45. The direction 

 in this case was so oblique to the meteor's path that the data are of little value for simply determining the height, but 

 they are important on account of their connection with the place of the meteor's last appearance. Mr. Richardson was 

 visited by the writer and his testimony was subjected to close scrutiny. If we take the azimuth at 15 west of north 

 we shall have a distance of 41 miles to the line under the meteor's path, and these data will give 41 miles for its vertical 

 height over a point not more than a mile from New Concord at the extreme western limit of the district along which 

 the meteorites are scattered. If we take the azimuth at 20 west of north both the distance and the height will be 

 greatly augmented. I have found two persons living near Bear Creek, 9 miles north of Marietta, who make statements 

 closely corroborating that of Mr. Richardson. 



3. Velocity of the meteor. -Mr. Welles furnishes data from which we can now determine approximately the meteor's 

 rate of motion. As this gentleman is somewhat accustomed to astronomical observation his judgment as to angles may 

 be strongly relied upon. He thinks he saw the meteor pass from a point 50 east of north to a point 20 east of north 

 in about 3 seconds. These two points in the meteor's path are over the townships of Newport in Washington County, 

 and Elk in Noble County. The distance between them is 12 miles. According to these data, then, its relative velocity 

 was about 4 miles a second. No other statement regarding the velocity has been obtained that is sufficiently definite 

 to be of any value. 



4. Its size and shape. Those who saw the fireball from stations not less than 20 and not more than 30 miles to the 

 westward agree in stating that it appeared as large and as round as the full moon. Its intense brilliancy may have 

 produced exaggerated conceptions of its size. But if we take the minimum apparent diameter of the moon and the 

 minimum distance of the meteor (its height being assumed as 40 miles) we shall have for its diameter thirty-eight one 

 hundredths, or about three-eighths of a mile. 



The train is described as a cone having its base upon the fireball. As seen from near Parkereburg its length waa 

 estimated at twelve times the diameter of the ball. The part next the base appeared as a white flame but not so bright 

 as to render the outline of the ball indistinct. About half way toward the apex it faded into a steel blue. 



NOTICE OF THE FALL FROM D. M. JOHNSON, ESQ., OF COSHOCTON, OHIO. 



(Mr. Johnson's notice of this shower of meteoric stones is the result of a visit to the locality a few days after the 

 event.) 



Two carpenters, Samuel L. Hines and Samuel M. Noble, were at work near the house on the farm of Jonas Amspoker, 

 of New Concord. Upon hearing the first report they looked up and saw two dark-looking objects, apparently about 

 the size of an apple, come through a cloud, producing a twirling motion in the vapor of the cloud. One of them they 

 saw fall to the ground about 150 yards from where they stood. The other one passed behind the house out of their 

 sight. They went immediately to the one they saw strike the ground and found it at the bottom of a hole 2 feet deep. 



