88 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



become more ruddy. About three minutes after its appearance I heard the explo- 

 sion. As sound travels fomteen miles a minute, the meteor must have been fortv- 

 two miles from me when the first explosion occiuTed ; that is, as I calculate, nearlr 

 over the Old Head of Kinsale, but rather south of it, and at a height then of thirtA- 

 miles. While exploding it must have gone tvelve miles farther, and its remains 

 may have fallen among the fishing fleet. The meteor appeared to me to have a 

 diameter about one-tenth the apparent diameter of the moon. Hence its real 

 diameter must have been about 200 feet. I calculate its velocity to have been. 

 twenty-five miles a second. 



" Hoping you may think my observations worth reading, 



" I am j^ours, 



" NO ASTRONOMEE." 



" The Phexo:me]s^a. of FjaTBAY stight. 



" ' CORK DAXLY HERALD.' 



" Our Tralee eon-espondent "n-rote on Friday night : — 



" ' A sti'ange meteoric phenomenon was obsen^ed here to-night, at a few minutes 

 past nine. Some persons assert that a ball passed along the heavens, and after a 

 second or two it exploded. Immediately the most minute object was observable by 

 the illumiaation produced. The light only lasted for a few seconds, and it is posi- 

 tively stated that, after the explosion of the ball, fragments of it fell outside the 

 subiu-bs, and noise resembling thunder was heard after the explosion.' " 



" Oui' Kinsale correspondent writes : — 



" ' Those " toilers of the deep " who were at sea fishiag on Friday night had a 

 good oppoi-timity of obser\ang the meteor. It resembled very closely the full 

 moon, and carried a trail very much like that of a rocket. It shot through the 

 heavens form noith-east to south-west, in which point it disappeared. The bril- 

 liancy of the blue light which emanated from it, as it sped along the clear sky. 

 made the smallest object on the earth quite visible, and in a few minutes after it?; 

 disappearance a deep dull sound like distant thunder was heard in a south-westerly 

 dii-ection, which leaves no doubt that it was the noise which followed.' " 



" A correspondent writes to us from Kilrash : — 



" ' An aerolite {sic) of remarkable brilliancy and size illuminated the town after 

 nine o'clock last night, and burst noiselessly. It was for more than thirty seconds 

 in -^iew. It was observed by hundreds who were in the streets.' " 



The writer, " K'o Astronomer," gives the size as about one-tenth 

 the apparent diameter of the moon. Eefraction would of course make 

 it appear larger to a spectator situated at Dublin, who saw it at the 

 comparatively low angle of 15°. 



The height over Cork which he estimates for the globe, at the mo- 

 ment of the explosion, agrees with that resulting from the 15° altitude 

 which I observed. 



The direction of movement which he noted S. W. leads to the 

 conclusion that the plane of movement had a westerly inclination. 



The Kinsale correspondent gives the size of the meteor as that of 

 the full moon (a sufficiently close approximation to mine) ; the colour 

 he states as Irilliant Hue (a colour hardly distinguishable fi'om biilliant 

 green at night, by many people). 



A correspondent writing from Cork gives the colour as Itffht blue, 

 and gives as the interval of time between the explosion and the sound 

 about two minutes, the time being about 9 o'clock, p. jr. 



