4\6 PHILOSbPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1773. 



exact time the report should take in reaching him. He waited upwards of 4 

 minutes, which in his state of expectation appeared a much longer time; when 

 despairing of any report, he rode on, but had not got to the middle of the 

 bridge, when he was stunned by a loud and heavy explosion, resembling the 

 discharge of a large mortar, at no great distance, and followed by a kind of 

 rumbling noise, like that of thunder. He examined his watch, and found that 

 the sound had taken 5 minutes, and about 7 seconds, to reach him ; which, ac- 

 cording to the common computation of 1142 feet in a second, amounts to the 

 distance of at least 66 miles. It did not occur to him to measure the duration 

 of the light, which probably did not exceed 10 or 12 seconds; and during this 

 short period, the length of the path, the meteor seemed to describe, could not 

 be less than 30 degrees. He expected to have seen some account of this phe- 

 nomenon from Newcastle, as, by its direction and distance, he imagined it had 

 burst pretty near the zenith of that town ; but no notice was taken of it in the 

 newspapers there. About a week after, he mentioned what he had seen to Sir 

 John Paterson of Eccles, who told him he was at that time on the road, between 

 Greenlaw and his own house; and as he was riding to the south, he observed 

 the meteor from its first appearance, which was about 3 or 4 seconds sooner 

 than he had time to turn about and view it ; and this perhaps is the reason that 

 it appeared so much higher to him than it did to Mr. B. That gentleman ob- 

 served, that when it first became luminous, it was almost vertical, but went off 

 descending to the s. e., and had in other respects the appearance above de- 

 scribed. He added, that some considerable time after the light disappeared, he 

 heard a great report, which he took for a clap of thunder ; for the interval was 

 so long, that he did not imagine this sound had any connection with what he 

 had seen. 



Now, as this gentleman was at least 20 miles to the west of the spot where 

 Mr. B. made his observation, and as the appearance and height of this meteor 

 seems to have been nearly the same to ,them both, it is probable that it was at a 

 very great distance from the earth, and much beyond the limits that have been 

 assigned to our atmosphere. The smaller meteors, called falling stars, Mr. B. 

 frequently observed from the mountain of St. Bernard, one of the high Alps; 

 and last year he had the good fortune to see several of them from the highest 

 region of mount Etna; an elevation still more considerable, and probably the 

 greatest accessible one in Europe, and they always appeared as high, as when 

 seen from the lowest grounds ; so that probably the height of 2 or 3 miles, 

 bears but a small proportion to the common altitude of these bodies. 



From their frequent appearance during the last frost, Mr. B. was inclined to 

 believe, that the air was then in a very favourable state for electrical purposes; 

 but not being provided with a common machine, he bethought him of a whim- 



