234 Mr. Bowditch’s estimate of the height &c. 
and at the height of about eighteen miles. These points appear to be 
ascertained to a considerable degree of accuracy. The time elapsed 
between the disappearance of the meteor and hearing the three loud 
reports at Weston, which, according to the estimates of different ob- 
servers, was at /east sixty seconds, serves in a degree to confirm the 
accuracy of the estimated altitude of the meteor. For the velocity 
of sound being 1142 feet. per second, the distance corresponding te 
60 seconds is 60 x 1142= 68520 feet, or 13 miles nearly : conse- 
quently the height must have exceeded 13 miles. 
At the first appearance of the meteor at Rutland, it was iielevasee 
at least 8° above the horizon of Weston; and at its disappearance at 
Weston, was above 5° above the horizon of Rutland; as may be 
easily proved from the places of the meteor given in Table II. Now 
as it was seen by Judge Wheeler and Mr. Page quite near the hori- 
zon, it must have been observed at both places fi from the time of the 
first Rutland observation till its disappearance at Weston. The dis- 
tance of the points where the meteor was then situated is easily found 
from the data in Table IT to be 107 miles in a straight line, and the 
distance really passed over by the body while visible must have exceed- 
ed that quantity. _ The whole duration of the appearance of the me- 
teor, as estimated by Mr. Page and Judge Wheeler, was about 30 sec- 
onds, which would make its velocity about 33 miles per second, by 
“ both observations. In a similar manner the distance passed over, 
while visible at Wenham, was about 52} miles, and if the duration 
of its appearance was 30 seconds, as Mrs. Gardner estimated it, the 
velocity corresponding would be 13 miles per second ; this would 
have been more than doubled if the extreme azimuths at Wenham 
had been made use of without correction. From these results it ap- 
pears probable that the velocity of the meteor exceeded 8 miles pe 
second. We may form an idea of the greatness of this velocity, by ob- 
serving that it is fourteen times as swift as the motion of sound, 
_ early as great as that of a satellite revolving about the earth at the 
