358 Prof. Forbes' s Account of a remarkable Meteor, 



they vary excessively as to its distance and magnitude; being 

 described by some persons as only 50 or 100 yards off, and 

 as large as the moon ; by others, as a ball of 9 inches in dia- 

 meter, or the size of a large egg. One person only professes 

 to have heard a sound. The time during which it was seen 

 was variously estimated. At Longford, by Mr. Curtis, 20 

 seconds ; at Glasgow, by Mr. Stevenson, at 20 seconds ; at 

 Johnstone, by Mr. Cunningham, 15 seconds; at Perth, 15 

 or 20 seconds; at Durham, by Mr. Carrington, 30 seconds; 

 at St. Andrews, 15 seconds according to one observer, and 

 18 to 21 seconds according to another; at Johnshaven, fths 

 of a minute. The hour of the appearance of the meteor, in 

 most of the descriptions, is stated at between 5 h 10 m and 5 h 16 m . 



The arc of the horizon which it was seen to traverse de- 

 pended, of course, on the point where the meteor first caught 

 the observer's eye. At Granton, it was traced by Professor 

 Kelland through 125° of azimuth ; at Perth, 130°; at St. An- 

 drews, 74°; at Edinburgh, 76°; at Durham, 65°', at Glas- 

 gow, from 60° to 70°. The division of the head or nucleus 

 into several parts, and, first of all (in most cases), into two, has 

 been noticed with remarkably slight variation ; consequently, 

 the explosion of the meteor marks a well-determined point in 

 its path. The separation was specially noticed at Edinburgh, 

 Granton, Glasgow, Renfrew, Melrose, Haddington, Johns- 

 haven, Perth, Durham and St. Andrews. 



In a majority of cases a luminous train was observed; and 

 I am confident that the existence of this train, which has been 

 estimated at from 2° to 3° long, cannot be questioned. Dn 

 Adamson, however, especially remarked that no train was to 

 be seen at St. Andrews. 



On revising the whole accounts, it does not appear that any 

 of them can be relied upon for ascertaining the position of 

 the meteor in space, except the observations of Mr. Carring- 

 ton of the Durham observatory; of Professor Kelland, Mr. 

 Stirling and myself, at Edinburgh ; of Dr. Adamson and an- 

 other observer, communicated by Professor Fischer of St. 

 Andrews; of a young gentleman at Perth, communicated by 

 Thomas Miller, Esq., Rector of the Perth Academy ; and of 

 A. D. Stevenson, Esq., and W. Gourlie, Esq., jun., at Glas- 

 gow. My inquiries were chiefly directed to the two following 

 points : Jlrst, the angular elevation of the meteor in the N.W. 

 quarter of the heavens, where it is admitted by all that its 

 path appeared almost horizontal ; secondly, to the bearing of 

 the meteor at the instant of explosion. 



At Durham, Mr. Carrington saw the meteor first when the 

 bearing was true N.W., the altitude (by theodolite) was then 



