510 H. C. RUSSELL. 
As stated at the beginning of these notes, my chief object was : 
to show that earthquakes felt on our western plains were some — 
times if not always caused by the explosion of large meteors, and 
I think that the reports show clearly that in this instance a great 
explosion in the meteor was coincident with the earthquake, and — 
further that the explosion was seen to occur at a point directly 
over that part of the country where the earthquake was sufficiently 
severe to alarm some hundreds of people. Capt. Honey’s observed 
bearing of the explosion, places it almost exactly vertically over 
Mr. Robinson’s buggy, (No. 2 report), and the time carefully 
noted by Mr. Cadell at Bedooba agrees within a minute or two 
of the times carefully noted at Rookwood, (Nos. 8, 9, 10.) 
The explosion therefore took place immediately over the point 
at which the earthquake or tremor was most severely felt. It is 
described as like the noise of heavy cannon close to, and every 
detail seems to me to point conclusively to the cause of the earth- 
quake as existing notin the earth but in the meteor. The explos- 
ions in great thunderstorms often shake the earth ; and explosions 
of large quantities of powder or other detonating materials have 
similar effects, and there can I think be no doubt that meteors 
from time to time produce the same sort of earth tremors. 
The object I had in view in collecting the facts of this meteor 
is now completed, but there are other facts pointing to the extra 
ordinary brilliance and dimensions of this meteor, some oF which 
I should like to call your attention to before I conclude. 
ITS GREAT SIZE. 
There are eleven estimates of the diameter of the meteor® 
compared with the moon, which was shining brightly at the time 
near the mid-heavens, and only one and a-half days from full 
moon. The estimates are admittedly rough, but they make the 
meteor’s apparent diameter two and a-half miles, the inte 
brilliance of it no doubt exaggerated the apparent diameter ; but 
the collateral circumstances, as for instance, its casting very dark ; 
shadows of trees, etc., in bright moonlight, at a distance of three a 
