PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 141 



accurate habits of observation, and especially by calling attention 

 to this matter on the part of editors of local newspapers. 



Any information on the subject communicated to the Society 

 through myself* or any member of the committee will be re- 

 sponded to in due season by the return of a small pamphlet con- 

 taining a digest of all the information that may be gathered on 

 the subject. 



Very respectfully yours, 



CLEVELAND ABBE. 

 On behalf of the foUovving committee : 



Hon. Peter Pabkkk, W. L. Nicholson, Cleveland Abbe. 



The answers received from these persons, together with copies 

 of the observations reported by the Smithsonian and the Signal 

 Service observers, and other information copied from newspapers, 

 are given in the accompanying Appendix No. I, which contains 

 all the original documents that we have received relating to the 

 appearance of the meteor. 



Our thanks are especially due to the Postmaster-General, to 

 the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and to the Chief 

 Signal Officer of the army for facilities afforded in the prosecution 

 of this work. 



Of the observers themselves, special mention should also be 

 made of Professor R. L. Brackett, Westminster, Maryland ; H. 

 Inman, of Ellsworth, Kansas ; Professor E. S. Holden, of the 

 United States Naval Observatory ; L. S. Abbott, Falls Church, 

 Virginia; the Waterford Literary Society, of Waterford, Vir- 

 ginia; and S. Simpson,' Fairfax Court House, Virginia; all of 

 whom have put themselves to considerable trouble in order to 

 materially further our investigation. 



Notwithstanding this hearty co-operation, your committee have 

 to regret that so little has been attained in tlie way of scientific 

 exactness iu respect to the path and dimensions of the meteor. 



A large portion of the territory covered by our inquiries seems 

 to have been overcast by clouds at the time of the meteor's pas- 

 sage, and although observations were indeed reported for about 

 forty (40) localities, yet most of these (as the Society is well 

 aware is usually the case) proved quite conflicting, or very indefi- 

 nite. In the cases especially named above, a comparatively rea- 

 sonable degree of accuracy was attained by the personal efforts of 

 our correspondents, and in respect to the observations at Wash- 

 ington, D. C, by the personal examination of the observers by 

 members of your committee. It is, in general, evident that 

 satisfactory investigations of this sort can only be conducted by 

 personal visitation of various localities by duly qualified indi- 

 viduals. 



With these observations collected, all of which, with a few 

 exceptions, were received during the year 1814, our investigation 

 would have closed, and our results would have been reported 



