316 Jsfotice of several Meteors. 



and for a few seconds before. The pleasing surprise which 

 the view of it occasioned prevented nie from at first attend- 

 ing to the time, but as nigh as I could estimate, it was about 

 three minutes from the apparent explosion until the report 

 was heard. The sound resembled that of a heavy cannon 

 at 3 or 4 miles distance fired in a still evening. The 

 course was nearly north. A gentleman who was in the 

 township of Gustavus precisely 20 miles north from the 

 place where I was, saw the light and thought the sound 

 succeeded in something more than a minute. 



It is a little more than 40 miles from this place to the south 

 shore of Lake Erie ; and much of the country south of the 

 lake, is still a wilderness, making it uncertain whether any 

 discoveries will be made if meteoric stones have fallen. If 

 they should be discovered, perhaps they will not be worth 

 sending a distance to analyze, the results of former experi- 

 ments having been so uniformly the same. 



H. M. 



The Pennsylvania Meteor of Nov. 1819. 



The following account of the meteor which was seen in 

 Chester county, Pennsylvania, on the 21st of Nov. 1819, 

 we have extracted from the American Watchman. After 

 some introductory observations the Editor remarks : — 



"While standing in the open air, we were surprized by 

 a sudden flood of light sufficient to enable us to read the 

 smallest print. We soon discovered a fireball in motion 

 in a direction east northeast, and 50 or 60 degrees above 

 the horizon. It passed a little to the south of our zenith, 

 towards the opposite point of compass, and about 30 degree? 

 above the western horizon it became invisible. This body 

 was, perhaps, about two seconds in progression, before we 

 saw it; from which we infer, that it first appeared about 

 30 degrees above the eastern horizon ; hence it travelled, 

 whilst within view, about 120 degrees in the heavens, and 

 in a period, we believe, of not less than five nor more than 

 ten seconds. The size of the body, when first observed, 

 might be about half that of the full moon. The tail which 

 projected from it was of a conical shape, well defined, and 

 extending from the ball to the apex, about 4 or 5 degrees. 



