METEORIC STONES AND SHOOTING STARS. 731 



In 1876 Prof. J. Lawrence Smith had 171 in his collection, and in 1872, 

 C. U. yhepard had 143 stony and 93 Iron Meteorites. 



REMARKABLE FALLS. 



A meteor, or rather a small group of meteors, were observed at New 

 Haven, Conn., at 6 p. m., February 14, 1873. They appeared near Yenus, 

 moving northward and downward. There were two balls, the leading, 

 smaller one, bright green, the following one a yellowish color. At New 

 Britain, Conn., it was seen t© divide into two portions, and one or two 

 smaller ones ; the latter soon vanished, the other two passed on. J 



Dr. Schmidt, at Athens, G-reece, October 18, 1863, saw what appeared to 

 the naked eye, a single meteor, but the telescope revealed two large me- 

 teors, traveling in front of a number of small fire balls, each of which was 

 followed by a train. Dr. Eeinsun observed by means of a telescope, three 

 small meteors, separated frem each other by small dark spaces ; the two in 

 tront smaller than the third, and the three presented the appearance of a 

 small isosceles triangle, with base in front. 



A brilliant fire ball was seen at Montpelier, Vermont, July 17, 1818, 

 between 9 and 10 o'clock p. m. It was a pear-shaped ball the size of the 

 full Moon, with its broader end towards the Earth, and immediately fol- 

 lowed by two smaller fire balls. 



On June 14, 1871, R. H. Thurston, U. S. N., saw on the deck of a vessel 

 between Providence and New York, a sudden flash of bright blue light, 

 instantaneously succeeded by an equally intense red flash, which again 

 gave place to a blue. A nucleus appeared with a long hair-like train of a 

 bluish color, becoming red on the south side; it disappeared 21° above the 

 horizon * 



A meteor was seen throughout Germany, trom Halle to Yienna, three 

 hundred miles distant, at 7 o'clock p. m., December 3, 1861. The length of 

 its path was eighty eight miles ; time of flight, two to five seconds, and was 

 about three hundred miles elevation when first seen, and exploded at an 

 elevation of fifty-seven miles, into three pieces. Its diameter was about 

 nine hundred feet, and brilliancy equal to that of the full Moon, increasing 

 to three times that at Yienna. 



A meteoric stone weighing 12 Ifes., was seen to fall in Hungary at 3 p.m., 

 October 13, 1852, which buried itself in the ground two feet. Near Batsura, 

 India, on May 12, 1861, a sound was heard resembling a cannon, succeeded 

 by several successive peals of seeming thunder. The noise was heard for 

 sixty miles. Five stones were picked up at various places, about three 

 miles apart, one of them having buried itself in the ground about eighteen 

 inches.f 



At 9:30 A. M., November 15, 1859, a meteorite fell with a tremendous 

 explosion in the southern part of New Jersey. It was seen from New- 

 buryport, Massachusetts, to Petersburg, Yirginia. Its apparent diameter 



J American Journal of Science, April, 1873. * American Journal of Science, January, 1871. 



t American Journal of Science, July, 18 3. 



