Stonewalls from tbe Sftg 125 



the meteor to the observer if it was really produced by 

 the meteor. 



Large meteors, like brilliant planets, always seem 

 much nearer than they really are. " People," said 

 Mr. Denning, " often describe them as falling 200 or 

 300 yards away, or just on the other side of a park or 

 of houses near them. One observer stated that he saw 

 a big meteor coming straight towards him and that he 

 ducked his head just in time to allow of the object 

 passing over him. It fell on the other side of the 

 hedge near which the observer was walking, according 

 to his statement." The most positive assertions are 

 frequently made that a meteor was only a few hundred 

 yards away when it was actually from 100 to 150 

 miles off. It is not, it seems, an uncommon circumstance 

 for people to imagine they have heard, as a big meteor 

 exploded, the patter of the dust and fragments into 

 trees near them. Of course, the imagination is there 

 again at fault ; in one case where the dusty debris 

 was alleged to have been very distinctly heard, the 

 object was 175 miles distant. 



Sometimes the error is purely visual. There was an 

 observer who would persist in describing the Perseids 

 as having their flights all directed towards the radiant. 

 And the odd part of it is that Mr. Denning never 

 succeeded in convincing his correspondent that the 

 Perseids in common with other meteor showers 

 moved away from the radiant. 



STONE-FALLS FROM THE SKY 



This is a subject to which Mr. W. H. S. Monck, of 

 Dublin, has given special attention. Dealing with it 



