384 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 17 5Q. 



rising or falling of the meteor during its whole course ; but that its motion, 

 from the time he first saw it, to its extinction, seemed to be nearly in one 

 straight line, at an equal height above the horizon ;-!- and that the light was 

 continued and uniform, without any fresh burstings of flames from either the 

 head or the tail. 



18. All the information received from that part of the country over which the 

 meteor seemed to break, was from Lord Auchenleck, as follows : about a 

 quarter after Q that night, there appeared from the south-east a very great illu- 

 mination or light, which instantly made such a splendor, that to a considerable 

 distance one could most distinctly see houses, trees, water, stones, &c. but 

 could not observe any particular body from which the light issued, nor that it ran 

 farther westward ; from which we may conclude, that it had then broken. No 

 noise was heard. During the preceding part of the day, there was a strong and 

 very cold south-east wind, with a little frost ; but the evening was more calm. 



From this letter it appears, that the sky in those parts, as about London, was 

 then so much clouded, as to hide the body of the meteor, though the light of 

 it was very manifest, and which was probably the brighter there for the bursting 

 of the tail, and its dissolution into sparks of fire, when almost vertical to the 

 observers. 



19. Sir Robert Pringle, who was at Stitchill, (about 10 miles n. n. e. of Jed- 

 burgh, and about 6o miles, nearly in the same direction, from Carlisle,) wrote 

 that he did not see the meteor nor met with any body that observed it, further 

 than the great light with which it was attended, making every thing to be seen 

 on the ground as distinctly as in sun-shine, and which continued, as they said, 

 much longer than a common flash of lightning from thunder. At that time Sir 

 R. happened to be sitting, with some of his family, in the parlour, and all of 

 them heard a noise they could not account for, as sounding like a gun fired off" 

 in the garrets, or a cannon discharged about a quarter of a mile off; but the 

 noise continuing like thunder at a distance, they concluded it was nothing else, 

 till one of the maid-servants came in, and said she had seen a very surprizing 

 fliash of lightning, both for its clearness, which she compared to noon day, and 

 for its continuance. Some of the Edinburgh newspapers describe the body of 

 that meteor to have been like a large star coming from the southward, and 

 ending in the northward, both points westward of the observer, with a train 

 after it, in form like a cone ; and with several sparks falling from it as it went 

 along. These accounts say nothing of the length of this luminous appearance; 

 but that it seemed to be about 10 or 12 inches broad at the head ; nor do they 

 mention any sound that was heard after it vanished. 



f This remark must be corrected by the last paragraph of the last note of Obs. 1 6. Orig. 



