THE METEOE OF JUNE 27, 1894. 257 



explosion near the Botany Bay tram terminus, agreeing much 

 more satisfactorily than is usual in such cases. 



But in addition to seeing it Mr. Pemberton distinctly heard a 

 loud explosion, which he describes as like a quarry blast at a 

 distance of two or three hundred yards, and being a contractor, 

 he is perfectly familiar with blasting sounds, and therefore not 

 likely to make a mistake except in the distance, and the explosion 

 may have been more violent than he thought, and therefore been 

 further away than he imagined. His estimate of the time between 

 seeing the explosion and hearing the sound was three seconds, but 

 such an estimate is difficult for anyone to make. Asked how far 

 the trap travelled in the interval, he said, about fifty feet, this at 

 the pace he was travelling would take six seconds, i.e., a mile and 

 a quarter from where he was to where the explosion took place, 

 and he was four and a half miles from the north side of Botany 

 Bay. 



A carter passing the old toll-bar heard the explosion at the 

 time named, and was startled by it, but could give no other 

 particulars. 



The evidence here collected is not proof, but it amounts to very 

 strong presumptive evidence that the meteor exploded somewhere 

 between the old toll-bar on the Kandwick road and Botany tram 

 terminus, a distance of four miles. If the Rev. E. Hargrave made 

 an error of only five degrees too much to south, then his line would 

 cut the others one and a half miles north of the tram terminus, 

 where all the other bearings are closer together and within about 

 a mile of the point indicated by Mr. Pember ton's estimate of the 

 distance of the explosion from him. 



It will thus be seen that the observations agree in placing the 

 point of explosion within a narrow line, that is, one mile in width 

 and extending north and south from three to four miles, remem- 

 bering the difficulties in the way of accuracy in such observations, 

 I think the agreement here is very remarkable, and I hope 

 to hear that some of the fragments have been found. Many 



Q-Sept. 5, 1894. 



