204 J. L. Smith—Two Bolides in Middle Kentucky. 
which was at first very luminous, from its being yet in the 
light of the sun, that had just before sunk beneath the horizon ; 
but its brilliancy faded as the sun descended lower, and then it 
behaved like a film of smoke, that was wafted into zigzags by 
a gentle breeze, curling up in folds and disappearing in about 
fifteen minutes, going toward the north. After the lapse of 
four and a half or five minutes, three or four loud detonations 
were heard in the direction in which the meteor disappeared— 
the sounds following each other in quick succession, and resem- 
bling very closely a rolling of artillery fired very rapidly. 
From the calculation of this observer, the explosion was located 
as far west as Louisville, and some thirty or forty miles to the 
south of this city. 
escribe the cloud as remaining for several minutes, 
slowly breaking up and gradually fading away. 
An observer at Danville, seventy miles southeast of Louis- 
ville, speaks of its motion as being very much slower than that 
of the ordinary shooting stars. It left a line of light which 
lasted but a short time, which had a beaded structure before it 
minutes, and even then disappeared Re from the failing Be oak 
: : e meteor was sudden, 
