306 report— 1878. 



of its whole course at Scarborough and Whitby. That drawn at Scar- 

 borough by Mr. Rowntree assigns, one point of the meteor's passage near 

 /3 Aurigee, at about 97° + 41°, with tolerable clearness, and with some 

 degree of approximation ; the course shown at Whitby (not very far 

 from Scarborough) also confirming the same position of its apparent path 

 at the place where the fireball in its downward course reached tbis point 

 of its descent. Combining the description with that of a corresponding 

 point noted at York of the meteor's downward path, the real height 

 and locality of the fireball, when its apparent altitude at York was a little 

 above that of Capella, is found to have been just 50 miles over the little 

 chain of the Northumbrian lakes lying in the north part of the valley of 

 the Tyne between Haydon Bridge and Haltwhistle. A projection on the 

 map of the meteor's onward line of flight from this point (by a straight 

 line drawn through it from York towards the point of the meteor's 

 vertical descent, horizonwards, 36° west from north) passed (north- 

 westwards by north) through Hawick, and nearly over Selkirk, Gala- 

 shiels, and Peebles to Linlithgow, about 15 miles west of Edinburgh, on 

 the Firth of Forth. In its last part the track follows the direction of the 

 valley from Galashiels to Edinburgh, leaving Galashiels itself six or seven 

 miles, and the rest of the valley as far as Edinburgh ten or twelve miles on 

 its right. An observer on the Edinburgh road one mile north of Gala- 

 shiels " saw a very large and brilliant meteor pass along the valley to the 

 north-north-west. The head was large and round, like a ball of electri- 

 city, and the tail long and tapered, as brilliant as the head. It was in 

 view for five or six seconds, and seemed at the end to melt into nothing. 

 Two minutes after its disappearance [a time taken by sound to travel 

 twenty-five miles], I and others heard one loud deep peal, as of thunder, 

 and a quarter of an hour later sheet lightning began to flash, and con- 

 tinued to do so at intervals for a considerable length of time." — (J.S. : 

 the ' Scotsman,' May 10th, 1878.) 



The presumptive course of the meteor arrived at by Mr. Clark, from 

 a projection of all the English observations, was from between 75 and 80 

 miles above Northallerton, in Yorkshire, to about 22 miles over a point 

 five miles west of Hawick, a flight of 108 miles in about nine seconds, 

 descending at an angle of about 38° to the horizon. But in this pro- 

 jection the only Scottish observation used (by Mr. D. R. Stewart, in 

 Edinburgh, ' Nature,' May 23rd, 1878) was employed for the commence- 

 ment only, the description of the end point (see a letter by Mr. Clark in 

 'Nature,' of June 6th) being a little ambiguous, while it appears to indi- 

 cate that the real end point of the meteor was actually far north of 

 Hawick, and perhaps even, according to Mr. Stewart's description, a little 

 north of Edinburgh. A letter received by Mr. Clark from Mr. D. R. 

 Stewart, soon afterwards, confirms the latter supposition, and describes 

 again the apparent place in the sky of the meteor's point of disappear- 

 ance near Edinburgh, almost exactly as it was before noted in ' Nature,' 

 but more clearly and distinctly. From his point of view at Kirknewton, 

 Edinburgh, the meteor began at an altitude of about 50° above the 

 S.S.E. horizon, some 30° east of the moon [then 5° west of the meridian, 

 alt. 31°, at Edinburgh], and passing somewhat west of the zenith reached 

 a position, when it burst and disappeared, about 30° or 40° N.W. by N. 

 from the zenith point of his position. Another observer in Edinburgh, 

 who saw the meteor's flight from a window facing south, was so im- 

 pressed with its apparent descent at last towards the direction of Fettes 



