134 West07i Meteorite of Dec. 14, 1807. 



therefore make no further use of his testimony. There are, how- 

 ever, two considerations which may throw some light on this 

 point. 



1. The meteor if a satelhte, must have moved with a velo- 

 city greater than three and a half miles per second, because if it 

 did not, the earth's attraction would soon have brought the whole 

 mass to the ground. But it is certain that much the greater portion 

 passed on. In order to have done this, through the air, at the 

 height of eighteen miles, it must have had a velocity not less 

 than five miles per second. 



2. According to Mr. E. Staples, (one of the observers at West- 

 on,) "when the meteor disappeared, there were apparently three 

 successive efforts or leaps of the fire-hall which grew more dim 

 at every throe, and disappeared with the last."* Soon after the 

 meteor disappeared, were heard three principal heavy reports, 

 which "succeeded each other with as much rapidity as was con- 

 sistent with distinctness, and all together, did not occupy three 

 seconds." Professors Silliman and Kingsley, who thoroughly 

 examined the region where the stones fell, a few days after the 

 event, say, " We think we are able to point out three principal 

 places where stones have fallen, corresponding with the three 

 loud cannon-like reports, and with the three leaps of the me- 

 teor." The account given by Mr. Isaac Bronson, of an investiga- 

 tion made Dec. 19, 1807, by himself and Kev. Horace Holley, 

 confirms this position. 



(1.) The most northerly fall was in Huntington, on the border 

 of Weston, near the house of Mr. Merwin Burr. (2.) The sec- 

 ond principal deposit was near the house of Mr. William Prince 

 "in Weston, distant about jive miles in a southerly direction 

 from Mr. Burr's." (3.) The third and probably the largest col- 

 lection, fell near the house of Mr. Elijah Seeley, " at the dis- 

 tance of about /o?ir iniles from Mr. Prince's." 



Although it is not certain that these several masses came in the 

 same direction from the meteoric body, yet until the contrary ap- 

 pears, it may, not unfairly, be assumed that they did ; and con- 

 sequently the interval of space at which they struck the earth, 



* Observers in Wal"lingford, Meriden, Cheshire, &c., " all agree that its motion 

 was not uniform either in velocity or direction, but that it seemed to bound, or as 

 one of them expresses it, to move, scolloping." Ch. Mo. Mag., v. 36. This is 

 probably due to the resistance of the air, vv^hich, in such cases, must be exceedingly 

 great. 



