MEMOIR ON METEORITES. 309 



it exploded was at least one hundred and seven miles; duration 

 of flight estimated at about thirty seconds, and its relative 

 velocity three and a half miles a second; it exploded ; three 

 heavy reports were heard ; the meteorite disppaeared at the time 

 of the explosion. 



As to the value of the data upon which its size was estimated, 

 the same objection is urged as in the case of the Wilton mete- 

 orite, and it is hazarding nothing to state that the apparent 

 size may have been due to an incandescent body a foot or two 

 in diameter. Also with reference to its disappearance there is 

 the same inexplicable mystery. It is supposed from its enor- 

 mous size that but minute fragments of it fell, yet it disappeared 

 at the time that this took place, which, it is supposed, occurred 

 nineteen miles above the earth — an estimate doubtless too great 

 when we consider the heavy reports. Accepting this elevation, 

 what do we have? A body one mile and a half in diameter in 

 a state of incandescence, passing in a curve almost parallel to 

 the earth, and while in the very densest stratum of air that it 

 reaches with a vigorous reaction between the atmosphere and 

 its surface, and a dense body of air in front of it, is totally 

 eclipsed ; while if it had a direction only tangential to the 

 earth, instead of nearly parallel, it would at the height of nine- 

 teen miles have had uj>ward of five hundred miles of air of 

 variable density to traverse, which at the relative velocity 

 of three and a half miles a second (that must have been con- 

 stantly diminishing by the resistance) would have taken about 

 one hundred and forty -three seconds. It seems most probable 

 that if this bodj T was such an enormous one, it should have been 

 seen for more than ten minutes after the explosion, for the 

 reasons above stated. The fact of its disappearance at the 

 time of the explosion is strong proof that the mass itself was 

 broken to fragments, and that these fragments fell to the earth, 

 assuring us that the meteorite was not the huge body repre- 

 sented, but simply one of those irregular stony fragments 

 which, by explosion from heat and great friction against the 

 atmosphere, become shattered. I say irregular, because we 

 have strong evidence of this irregularity in its motion, which 

 was '-scolloping" — a motion frequently observed in meteorites, 

 and doubtless due to the resistance of the atmosphere upon the 

 irregular mass, for a spherical body passing through a resisting 



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