352 THE ORGUElIi METEOR. 



neglect any intermediate station, the accounts from Napoleon Vendee, Poiti'ers, 

 Saint- Amans, .... it becomes evident that we are approaching the 

 phenomenon, because on the one hand the size of the meteor increases, and on the 

 other it becomes more elevated in the heavens ; the explanation of which is found 

 in the sphericity of the earth, being the same facts that are observed on gradually 

 approaching a mountain or a distant coast. Continuing then our progress south- 

 wards, we come to the line passing through Saintes Angouleme and Tulle, and 

 here we learn a new aud characteristic circumstance. The ball, appearing still 

 more elevated above the horizon, suddenly burst, throwing out sparks in all 

 directions, and this explosion, as in a rocket, ended its appearance : and in order 

 that no particular of this resemblance should be wanting, there remained above 

 the spot where the final disruption took place, a cloud-like appearance, whito 

 immovable, rounded, and lasting for a long time. "We come at last to the very 

 seat of the phenomenon, on a line nearly straight, which starts from Nerac 

 and goes towards the villages of Nohic and d'Oigueil, passing a little to the 

 South of Agen and Montauban. Along the zenith of this line the meteor passed. 

 The inhabitants saw it over-head, larger than the moon. It appeared to have 

 movements of oscillation or rotation, and threw behind it very vivid sparks and 

 a sort of jet of white vapors comparable to the smoke which escapes whistling 

 from an overheated stick of wood on the hearth. When the final explosion took 

 place, an immense and splendid sheaf of fire threw fragments in all directions, a 

 cloud formed, and then everything disappeared, according, at least, to most of 

 the witnesses, but two of them afiirm that they saw the meteor, stripped of its 

 brightness, proceed as a dark red ball and become extinguished ia the distance. 

 After an interval of time, which varied according to the position of the observers, 

 but which, noted carefully by each of them, extended from twenty-four seconds to 

 five minutes, there was heard a dull but very intense sound, compared to a dis- 

 cbarge of artillery or the roll of thunder. It was cot a single detonation like 

 that which follows the explosion of a rocket, but a l6ng continued noise, as ifit 

 had been generated at the successive points of the meteor's path, and had reached 

 the ear after different intervals by reason of the unequal distances it had to 

 traverse. This circumstance is deserving of remark. The disruption of the 

 meteor had scarcely ended, and the following report ceased to resound, when 

 the final phenomenon, as might have easily been foreseen, occurred in an abun- 

 dant downpour of meteoric stones. They were seen to fall beneath the point 

 where the explosion took place in a narrow tract comprised between the vil- 

 lages of Mont-Bequi, Campsas Nohic, and Orgueil. They descended obliquely 

 from West to East, the natural consequence of the combination of their initial 

 velocity and gravity, and they were hot on reaching the ground : a peasant 

 burnt himself by attempting to pick up one which had fallen in his granary, 

 and it was remarked that the grass where they fell was turned yellow by the 

 contact. The surface of these stones was covered with a black coating like 

 varnish (as may be noticed on bricks too much baked), and this proves that 

 they had undergone a superficial fusion, which indeed can be reproduced on 

 them by cutting and exposing the surface to the flame of a blow-pipe; and since 

 it is necessary, in order to effect this, to raise them to a red-white heat, It must 

 follow that they had reached this temperature at least before the fall. 



