FIRE-BALLS. 221 



balls of fire, which seemed to chase each other across the 

 sky. This cluster must have been about forty miles long 

 and five miles wide. The detonation by which the explo- 

 sion was accompanied was a specially notable incident of 

 this meteor. It was not only heard with terrific intensity 

 in the neighbourhood, but the volume of sound was borne 

 to great distances. Bloomington, in Indiana, is one hun- 

 dred and eighty-five miles from the actual point in the 

 sky where the meteor was rent in pieces, yet about the 

 neighbourhood of Bloomington not only was the sound of 

 a frightful explosion heard, but the shock of the concus- 

 sion was actually felt to such a degree that some of those 

 who experienced it thought an earthquake must have 

 happened. 



The tremendous volume of sound that must have been 

 emitted is forcibly presented to us when we consider the 

 interval of time that elapsed between the moment when 

 the inhabitants of Bloomington saw the gorgeous proces- 

 sion of fire-balls streaming over the heavens, and the 

 moment when the appalling crash burst on their ears. 

 Every one is familiar with the fact that the flash of a 

 gun is seen ere the report is heard, and the greater the 

 distance of the gun the longer is the interval by which 

 the light and the noise are separated. Sound takes five 

 seconds to travel a mile ; light travels so quickly that the 

 time necessary to traverse a mile, or a hundred miles, or a 

 thousand miles, is utterly inappreciable by ordinary 

 measurement. 



The celestial spectacle had excited the utmost astonish- 

 ment ; doubtless it had been discussed and notes had been 

 compared by those whose good fortune had permitted them 



