300 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 
4. Meteor of August 11, 1859.—On the morning of the 11th of August, 
at 7 o’clock and 20 minutes, or thereabouts, thermometer 73° F., air still 
and without clouds, two violent and successive explosions or reports (one 
witness, Mrs. Ball, says there were three,) were heard over a district of 
country, extending in an east and west line, from Blandford, in Hampden 
county, Massachusetts, to some ten miles west of the cities of Troy and 
Albany on the Hudson—a distance of about 100 miles ;—and in a north 
of about 80 miles. he noise, which has been compared by some, to 
two successive, sharp and heavy peals of thunder, and by others, to the 
Schodack, on the Springfield and Albany railroad, men who were at work 
in the fields heard the report and felt the shock with great distinctness, 
and at Greenbush, a large number of people rushed to the docks, expect 
ing that a steamboat had burst its boiler. 
As to the cause of the phenomenon ;—a great abundance of concurrent 
testimony, seems to prove, that it was due to the explosion of an 
mense meteor at a considerable distance above the surface of the earth. 
This evidence, so far as we have been able to collect it is, as follows:— 
John P. Ball, County Clerk of Rensselaer Co., N. Y., in a letter to the 
editor of the Troy Times, states: “that as he was standing in his door- 
5 
moment or more he heard the explosion. It was very loud 
thunder. He had previously called his family to view the meteor. and 
they all observed the light and heard the explosi 
that there were three separate explosions—one much louder than the 
rs—and in support of her statement, Mr. B. says he saw three distinct 
louds of smoke in the track of the meteor, which app to be a mile 
) sight. The meteor appeared to be at a distance of about twenty miles 
om Mr. Ball’s residence.” | 
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or more apart. The smoke was visible for some time, but was finally lost 
. as here given, are based upon positive information ; they may, how: 
