218 LUMINOUS METEOR 0B8EI^F.I> AX GENEVA. 



It was seen at We have learned by the public papeifi, that this meteor 

 "^' was seetj at Paris; but it is not said in what (iirection. Sup- 



posing it to have been seen due east, thev intersection of this 

 azimuth with that observed at Geneva would point out the 

 place of the meteor in the region of Vitry, Chalons, and 

 Bar sur Ornain, about seventy leagues in a straight line 

 Istimafion of ^'^*''" Geneva : a distance which, with its apparent observed 

 IK real height, height, and taking into account the effect of the sphericity 

 of the Earth, would place the meteor about the actual height 

 of twenty-four leagues and half. 



The snppoiiition we have made, for want of observations, 

 may serve as a guide to those, who remarked nearly the 

 azimuthal direction of the phenomenon, and would form an 

 idea of its absolute height. It must have been less than 24f 

 leagues, if the meteor were seen in a direction to the south- 

 ward of east; and on the contrary so much more, in pro- 

 portion as it appeared more to the north of the perpendicular 

 to the meridian of Paris. 

 Abo^eourat- At any rate it appears, that its height exceeded the sensi- 

 laospliere. blc limits of our atmosphere; and that its light, and proba- 

 bly its heat, did not arise, as in our ordinary combustions, 

 from the presence and decomposition of the oxigen gas of 

 the atmosphere. 

 Frobab? Several circumstances of this phenomenon were similar to 



stoaes fell from those that have been observed in lapidiferous meteors ; and 

 **• we should not be surprised to hear, that incandescent stones 



had fallen in places, which had this meteor in their zenith. 

 No explosion was heard ; but perhaps the distance was too 

 great, and the circumambient medium too rare, for the so- 

 norous vibrations to be transmitted to us. 



XIV. 



LciUrfrom Profehor P. Prevost, to Professor PlCTET on 

 theMcteorofthe IStho/May*. 



,,— , Gesev K, 31at/ the 28th, 1811, 



Compari-or of jL HE care you have taken, ray dear colleague, to deter- 

 eircumsuaces ^^^^ exactly the position of the meteor observed the 13th 



♦ Bibiiotheque Britannique, for May, 1811, p. 110. 



of 



