A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 389 
and this agrees with the interval between the light and the report at War- 
saw (although not quite so well with that observed at Sielc). From this 
point the aérolites descended vertically upon Siele with such slight velocity 
that none of the stones were buried in the ground. A flight of 115 miles in 
about 62 seconds, descending from a height of 160 or 185 miles at first ap~ 
pearance, nearly represents, according to the observations at Breslau and 
Dantzig, the meteor’s real path. The point of radiation ( Piscium) is only 
23° from the point opposite to the “ apex of the earth’s way.” The relative 
velocity of the meteor with respect to the earth, depending on the duration of its 
flicht, 62 seconds, which is a mean result of twenty-six independent observa- 
tions, is 17 miles per second; so that the meteor appears, in its real orbit in 
space, to have pursued and overtaken the earth directly in its path, with 
an inclination to the latter of only 11°, and with a real progressive velocity 
in its course of 35 B.S. miles per second. 
The following, according to Dr. Galle, are the hyperbolic elements of the 
orbit of the meteorite, which cannot be reduced within the limits of the para- 
bolic form, unless by nearly doubling the assumed time of the meteor’s dura- 
tion, or by supposing its apparent path at Dantzig to be diminished by 
nearly one half (from 38° to 20°), a supposition which is not by any means 
easily reconcilable with the remaining observations :— 
Perihelion Passage, 1868, Jan. 22°5. 
TROT OE PECMC NON ee a ate win ot aa tyes ahs 116° 
GME. ON-MD” to Pa oak ait oo’ Ae dea t> 310° 
HGH MARIO, "ey ye ss) oiim Hey sleteiche okt 6° 
Low pariiehion, dist. < (ys oe a cits = 9-9841 
Dog: = MAIO AMIR S25 s «a 9g gs ss 3 9:8778 
CER GEICUEY os axis c om, op 019 ane yen os, cts 2:277 
Motion direct. 
A change of the assumed velocity, Dr. Galle adds, would principally affect 
the excentricity and 4 major axis, without sensibly altering the values of the 
remaining elements of the orbit. 
Report of Dr. Haidinger on the stonefall (Vienna Acad. Sitzungsbericht, 
vol. lyii. pt. 2. March 1868).—The site of the shower of aérolites, of which 
the three largest stones weighed respectively 2 lbs., 4 lbs., and 10 Ibs., is 
between Ostrolenka and Pultusk, forty miles N.E.from Warsaw. The small- 
est of the three large stones is in the Mineralogical Museum at Vienna. It 
is an equilateral wedge, 2 or 3 inches wide, and 3 or 4 inches long; its faces 
marked with circular depressions, and glazed over with a thin dull-black crust. 
In its structure it coincides with Partsch’s group of Eichstidt, Barbotan, 
Timochin, Zebrak, and Gross-Dwina, to which may now be added Zerkon 
and Bustee, all of which have large contents of iron and a high specific gra- 
vity, 3°55-3°70 ; that of the Sielc aérolites is 3-66. Their substance is tu- 
faceous, grey or brown, containing darker spherules intimately admixed with 
iron and a small quantity of Troilite. A polished section exhibited black 
lines, with a fine thread of metallic iron running in them, which apparently 
represent the planes of friction, fissure, or striation not uncommonly met with 
in terrestrial rocks. Many other stones were picked up on the site of the 
fall; and the shower of aérolites is supposed by Dr. Haidinger and by Dr. 
Galle to have entered the atmosphere as a swarm of separate stones, like 
those aérolitic showers which fell at Barbotan, L’Aigle, Stannern, Orgueil, 
and Knyahinya. 
