THE METEOR OF DECEMBER 21, 1876. 45 



that these results generally follow the seeing of a flash of lightning. It was 

 natural at the moment to Jittribute the flash to lightning, whereupon nerve 

 and ear were at once ]3ut in readiness to feel the tremble and hear the 

 thunder in confirmation of the evidence given by the eye. 



A correspondent of the Times, down in Indiana, speaking of the phenom- 

 enon, nicely avoids the point of libel by stating that "an alleged earth- 

 quake " passed over that section. 



G-ALESBURG, III., December 22. — This community was startled, between 

 8 and 9 o'clock last night, by a large and brilliant meteor passing in a 

 northeasterly direction over the city. Prof. Comstock, of Knox College, 

 gives the following description of it in this evening's Bepublican-Register : 

 My family were startled by a brilliant flash of light which fell upon the 

 carpet in the presence of lamp-light as being green. The children gave the 

 alarm and rushed to the south door, just in time to see the explosion of a 

 splendid meteor. They say it was red, blue, and all colors, like a rocket. 

 The light cast upon the clouds had a greenish tint. I was too late to see 

 anything, though it could not have been more than ten seconds from the 

 time the alarm was given until I was in the open air. However, in about 

 five minutes (estimated, not observed)', a tremendous explosion occurred, 

 consisting of two rejiorts, with an interval of about a half-second. Everj' 

 window in the house seemed to rattle, and the solid earth to tremble. It 

 closely resembled a heavy clap of thunder. If the time between the flash 

 and the report was five minutes, the distance must have been something 

 over sixty miles, and the angle of elevation, as near as can be estimated 

 from the testimony of the observers, would give a height of leps than forty 

 miles. 



Lewiston, III., December 22. — On Thursday evening at 8:45, a magnifi- 

 cent meteor, apparently as large as a flour barrel, passed nearly directly over 

 this place, from west to a little northeast. It left behind it a luminous trail 

 of fire over 40 degrees in length, and occupied about a full minute in pass- 

 ing across the heavens. The passage of the meteor was followed by a loud 

 report that shook the earth and greatly alarmed the people. Houses trem- 

 bled violently, and many j)ersons ran outdoors in tremor. After the first 

 report a heavy rumbling sound seemed to pass over from the east to the south- 

 west, and could be heard for five minutes. The meteor lighted up the 

 streets as bright as day. The wonderful phenomenon almost caused a ter- 

 rible disaster in Beadle's Opera Hall, where a large audience were witness- 

 ing a play by a local company. The flash of the meteor lighted up the hall 

 with a sudden glare, and the cry of "fire" was raised. Instantly the audi., 

 ence were in a panic, and hundreds made frantic efforts to get through the 

 doorway. Only the prompt action of a few cool men prevented a rush down 

 the stairway that must have resulted in many women and children being 

 crushed. Order was soon restored, and no one sustained serious injuries. 



Chicago Tribune Editorial. — The unusually brilliant meteor which 

 passed over the States of Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and 

 Pennsylvania appears to have followed a path that was very much curved 

 with respect to a plane perpendicular to the earth's surface. Unfortunately, 

 none of the numerous notices of the stranger that have come to hand give 

 its position with sufficient accuracy to permit a calculation to be made of its 

 course. In order, however, to believe that all of them should be approxi- 

 mately correct, it is necessary to assume that the path was several scores of 

 miles above the surface of the earth, and nearly parallel thereto, during the 

 flight over Illinois, This view is supported by the testimony of an observer 

 at Valparaiso, Ind., who heard the noise in from three to four minutes after 

 the flash. Taking 4.6 seconds per mile as the rate at which sound travels 



