324 GUERNSEY COUNTY (OHIO) METEORITES. 



falling finally at the foot of the hill. A line connecting these 

 points shows the curve already stated. Coupling with this the 

 observations of Mr. Callahan on the direction that one of these 

 stones penetrated the ground, with the observed path of their 

 distribution, no doubt can remain that the general direction 

 of their fall was from south-east to north-west, striking the 

 ground at an angle of about sixty degrees. 



ALTITUDE OF THE METEORITE. 



This is a point that can be determined but very imperfectly, 

 if at all. It may have been when first seen forty miles above 

 the earth, but when the explosion was heard it must have been 

 nearer, and was even still nearer when it subdivided and was 

 scattered ("exploded," as usually termed) over Guernsey and 

 the edge of Muskingum counties. It is, however, but proper 

 that I should give Prof. Evans's computation from the data 

 he collected ; they were published in the July number of the 

 Amer. Jour, of Science and Arts, but their reproduction will 

 not be out of place here : 



" Mr. William C. Welles, of Parkersburg, Yirginia (lat. 39° 

 10', long. 81° 24'), a gentleman of liberal education, testifies 

 that, being about three miles east of that place at the time of 

 the occurrence, he happened to look up to the north-east of him 

 and saw a meteor of great size and brilliancy emerging from 

 behind one cloud and disappearing behind another. When 

 about 35° east of north he thinks its altitude was 65°. Now 

 the distance, in a direction 35° east of north, from his station 

 to the line directly under the meteor's path, is twenty miles. 

 Calculating from these data, I find for the vertical height, taken 

 to the nearest unit, forty -three miles. This was at a point in 

 Washington County near the border of Noble. 



" Mr. C. Hackley testifies that he saw the meteor from Berlin 

 in Jackson County. It crossed a cloudless space in the north- 

 east, and he thinks its altitude at the highest point was 30°. 

 Now the distance from Berlin to the nearest point under the 

 meteor's path is seventy miles. These data give nearly forty- 

 one miles for its vertical height over Noble County, a few miles 

 to the south of Sarahsville (lat. 39° 53', long. 81° 40'). 



" Many other reliable witnesses have been found who saw 

 the meteor through openings in the clouds from various points 



