14 REPORT — 1860. 



100 miles ; and, to have completed its path within their estimates of time, it 

 must have had a velocity of from thirty to fifty miles per second. 



The extreme shortness of the time occupied in its flight, is proved not 

 merely by the estimates of several observers, but by the failure of people in 

 the vicinity of the explosion to distinguish the source of the sudden flash of 

 light seen by them, and by the impression of even the most distant observers 

 that it fell very near them. 



5. The sound was explosive, and not caused by the falling in of the air 

 after the meteor. In the latter case it must have been continuous and un- 

 interrupted, but the testimony of Dr. Beasley and others shows that it ceased 

 entirely and then began again. 



Supposing the meteor to have been a stony mass, we may, perhaps, con- 

 sider the explosion to have consisted of a series of decrepitations caused by 

 the sudden expansion of the surface, the whole time of flight not being suffi- 

 cient to allow the heat to penetrate the mass. At the forward end these ex- 

 plosions would take place under great pressure, which may account for the 

 loudness of the sound. 



6. The estimated duration of the sound at Beasley's Point was not less 

 than one minute, indicating that the most distant point of the explosion was 

 not less than twelve miles further from that place than its nearest point. 

 Comparing this with the position of the assumed path, we find that, during 

 the explosion, the meteor must have travelled fifteen or twenty miles, occu- 

 pying about a second of time. 



7. The explosions were very numerous, arranged in two series, the whole 

 occupying only half a second of time, but the individual sounds were distin- 

 guishable, because of the different distances they had to travel to reach the 

 ear. The velocity of the meteor being more than 100 times that of sound, 

 the reports must have come in the order of distance and not in the order of 

 their occurrence, causing the end of the explosion to be heard before the 

 beginning. The faint rushing sounds first heard by Mr. Ashmead must 

 have had their origin below the explosion, and been caused by the flight of 

 the fragments towards the earth. If the direction of the first faint sound 

 could be indicated by persons further west, it might serve to point to the 

 place where the fragments fell. 



8. The meteor lost its luminosity with the explosion or shortly after, and 

 hence was not seen by persons in Cape May County and vicinity, it being 

 too much overhead to come within the ordinary range of vision, and the time 

 of flight being too short to allow them to direct their eyes to it after seeing 

 the flash. 



If the heat be due to the resistance of the air, it must be principally deve- 

 loped at the surface of the forward half of the meteor. Consequently 

 most of the explosions must occur then, and the force of each be directed 

 backward, tending to check the velocity of the mass. In fact, we may per- 

 haps consider the series of explosions to be merely one of the forms of the 

 atmospheric resistance. This must increase rapidly with the density, although 

 it may be insufficient to account for so great a reduction of speed as would 

 entirely destroy the luminosity of the meteor before it reached the earth. 



9. From the tremendous force of the explosion, and from the fact that this 

 meteor was seen by persons who were not within 200 miles of any part of 

 its path, as at Salem, Massachusetts, and Petersburg, Virginia, we must cer- 

 tainly conclude that it was of very considerable size ; but we seem to have 

 no data for any approximation to its actual dimensions. It was certainly 

 heated to a most intense brightness ; and the experiments of Professor 

 J. Lawrence Smith, detailed in Silliman's Journal, vol. xix. fol. 340, second 



