378 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO l/SQ. 



found, by taking the altitude with an instrument, that it had been extinguished 

 about 1" 15' above the horizon, then bearing 35^ westward of the north.* 



3. As for London, and the parts adjacent, all that could be learnt was ' that 

 the meteor was seen by 3 gentlemen in Chelsea-fields.' It is probable that on 

 that evening the air was foggy hereabouts, or that there was no wind to carr}' off 

 the smoke ; for these circumstances will easily enough account for there being 

 no notice at all taken of that body in London, and that it was so little heard of 

 in the neighbourhood. 



4. A person near Colchester saw the meteor, and said its direction was towards 

 the south-east; that the apparent diameter of the body was about 5 or 6 inches, 

 not so large as the moon when at the highest, but more bright; that the meteor 

 left a train of light behind it ; that its progress was extremely swift; that no ex- 

 plosion was heard when it disappeared; and that he did not perceive it to break 

 into stars in the manner of a rocket. 



Mr. Wigson, who sent this account, concluded with observing, that as this 

 man was at that time on a journey from Thoip to Colchester, he might easily 

 be deceived as to the points of the compass, by the windings of the road. 



5. In tracing the progress of this body northwards, Dr. P. had the following 

 from the Rev. John Michell, fellow of Queen's College Cambridge, as he col- 

 lected them from a person who saw them near that place. The first appearance 

 was at least 70° high, and it appeared to move directly perpendicularly, till it 

 came down to the honzon, where it passed between two trees, which the man 

 pointed out : this last place of its appearance was 23° west of the north from the 

 place where he stood ; and as we were at least a mile distant from the trees, we 

 may depend on that bearing to a degree or 2 at most. The head, which went 

 foremost, was by the description, of a bright white, like iron, when almost of a 

 melting heat; but it emitted no sparks, as iron does in that state. The head 

 was about half the diameter of the moon, and till it had descended to within 

 about 14° of the horizon, was somewhat less in the vertical than in the hori- 

 zontal diameter ; but from 14° high, it was at its utmost splendor, and round, 

 and continued so till it disappeared. The tail was about a 5th part of the breadth 

 of the head, and when the head was about 27° high, was at the longest : the 

 length then might be somewhat more than 8°, which was the mean length. 



• This bearing carries the meteor about a pwint farther to the westward than what is consistent 

 with the common maps, and several of the following observations. On the supposition that the ob- 

 server was tolerably exact in pointing out the apparent altitude, at which the meteor disappeared, 

 and that it was extinguished when nearly perpendicular to Fort William (in the highlands of Scot- 

 land), as shall be shown afterwards, then allowing 22 miles for the curvature of the earth, and a 

 distance of 420 miles between Silchesler and Fort William, the real height of this body, at its dis- 

 appearance, was about 32 miles. — Orig. , 



