142 REPORT— 1876. 



close proximity to the full moon, -which hy the side of the meteor appeared 

 quite pale. In colour it was not xiulike a Roman candle [white or blue]. 

 It moved very slowly through the sky, in a direction westwards and down- 

 wards." [The direction assumed in the calculations is towards the point iv** 

 or 20™ indicated by the hands of a clock, having the moon at the centre of 

 the dial.] 



The earth-point of this meteor, as concluded from the observations by Cap- 

 tain Tupman, or the place where the meteor's real path prolonged would 

 have reached the ground, is in the neighbourhood of Sedburgh, a town in the 

 extreme north-west part of Yorkshire, and not far south-south-eastwards 

 from Carlisle. The point of disappearance was at a height of only 13 or Id- 

 miles above the earth's surface, not far from Pately Bridge, West Eiding, 

 Yorkshire. The distance of this latter point from Wath, near Eotherham, 

 is about 47 miles, which sound Avould traverse, with its ordinary speed in air, 

 in about 3'" 47*. Mr. W. M. Burman, who saw and describes the meteor as it 

 appeared at this place, heard a detonation which, from its close agreement 

 with the calculated time required by the sound of the meteor's disruption at 

 disappearance to reach him, was probably a distinctly audible sound of its 

 explosion. He writes: — "The magnificent meteor of Tuesday night, Sept. 

 14th, was well seen here in a cloudless sky at S"" 26"" G.M.T. I was walk- 

 ing, and the full moon was throwing my shadow on the wall on my right, 

 when suddenly a dazzling light shone around, and my shadow vanished from 

 the wall. Upon looking up, I saw this magnificent meteor slowly careering 

 across the sky, quite overpowering the light of the moon. It passed nearly 

 overhead, and disappeared in the N.W. by W. It was of a half-moon shape, 

 the preceding part being convex and sharp, the following part flame-like and 

 flickering, and of a brilliant bluish-white colour. No red tinge was seen 

 from first to last, nor train, nor sparks. Its diameter was about half that 

 of the moon. In that dazzling light it was impossible to see any star ; but 

 soon after it had passed I tried to make out its path*. Its total visibility 

 was about 6 seconds ; but I only saw it during 4 or 4| seconds, as it wect 

 behind the roof of an adjacent house; but a friend (who saw the end of its 

 course from a neighbouring place) says that it simply disappeared, no sparks 

 being visible, nor any change of colour. Three and a half minutes after it 

 disappeared I heard a sharp and sudden explosion, like the report of a small 

 cannon at a distance, exactly from the direction that the meteor had taken ; 

 but whether it had any thing to do with the meteor or not I cannot tell." 

 Mr. Burman adds that " the rumbling of a distant train prevented me from 

 hearing any sound during the passage of the meteor, if any such were 

 audible; " and it was, in fact, remarked by several who described the meteor, 

 that while it was in sight a rushing or hissing sound accompanied its pas- 

 sage through the air. Passing over these descriptions as impressions of very 

 doubtful positive reality, the case of such a sound recorded at York by Mr. 

 Proctor may perhaps be explained as due to a real detonation, of which he 

 gives the following description at that place: — "I have some impression that 

 it Avas accompanied or followed by a rushing sound, and a friend of mine 

 thought the same, but amounting to an explosion at a great distance." In 

 a note of some length in ' Nature ' (vol. xii. p. 460) on large meteors in the 



* Mr. Burnian's positiou, so nearly under the brigLtest portion of the meteor's track, 

 may have led to its extreme brightness biding and OTerpowering the sparks and duller 

 fragments which, at more distant stations, are said to hare attended and followed tho 

 meteor in some part of its course as a train of redder colour than the head. 



