478 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO 1784. 



one of the company remarked some particular circumstances, and the collection 

 of them all furnished the materials for this account, it may be presumed, that this 

 description is as true as the nature of the subject can admit of. 



It was in the hazy part of the atmosphere, about the n. by w. ± w. point of 

 the compass, that this luminous meteor was first perceived. Some flashes of 

 lambent light, much like the aurora borealis, were first observed on the northern 

 part of the heavens, which were soon perceived to proceed from a roundish lumi- 

 nous body, nearly as large as the semi-diameter of the moon, and almost sta- 

 tionary in the above mentioned point of the heavens, see fig. 5, pi. 7. It was 

 then about 25 minutes after 9 o'clock in the evening. This ball, at the begin- 

 ning, appeared of a faint bluish light, perhaps from its being just kindled, or 

 from its appearing through the haziness; but it gradually increased its light, and 

 soon began to move, at first ascending above the horizon in an oblique direction 

 towards the east. Its course in this direction was very short, perhaps of 5 or 6 

 degrees; after which it turned towards the east, and moving in a direction nearly 

 parallel to the horizon, reached as far as the s. e. by e. where it finally disap- 

 peared. The whole duration of the meteor was half a minute, or rather less ; 

 and the altitude of its track seemed to be about 25° above the horizon. A short 

 time after the beginning of its motion, the luminous body passed behind a small 

 cloud, so that during this passage they observed only the light that was cast in 

 the heavens from behind the cloud, without actually seeing the body from which 

 it proceeded, for about the 6th or at most the 5th part of its track; but as soon 

 as the meteor emerged from behind the cloud, its light was prodigious. Every 

 object appeared very distinct; the whole face of the country being instantly illu- 

 minated. At this moment the body of the meteor appeared of an oblong form, 

 as at fig. 6; but it presently acquired a tail, and soon after it parted into several 

 small bodies, each having a tail, and all moving in the same direction, at a 

 small distance from each other, and very little behind the principal body, the 

 size of which was gradually reduced after the division, as at fig. 7- In this form 

 the whole meteor moved as far as the s. e. by e. where the light decreasing rather 

 abruptly, the whole disappeared. 



During the phenomenon no noise was heard by any of the company, except 

 one person, who thought he heard a crackling noise, something like that which 

 is produced by small wood when burning. But about 10 minutes after the dis- 

 appearance of the meteor, and when they were about to retire from the terrace, 

 they heard a rumbling noise, as of thunder at a great distance, which probably 

 was the report of the meteor's explosion ; and it may be naturally imagined that 

 this explosion happened when the meteor parted into small bodies, viz. at about 

 the middle of its track. Now if this noise was really the report of the explo- 

 sion which happened in the above-mentioned place, the distance, altitude, course, 



