THE GREAT METEOR OF MAY 71x, 1895. 511 
hundred and thirty miles, its effect upon the horse ridden by 
Capt. Honey, and many other details, prove that it must have 
been of magnificent proportions and brilliance. 
ITS ALTITUDE. 
Its altitude must have been very great. Capt. Honey having 
noted his own position and then that of the meteor in relation to 
large trees on the mountains near him, went back with an instru- 
ment and measured the altitudes of these points, which show that 
the elevation when first seen must have been one hundred and 
seventy miles, and at the moment of explosion ninety-six miles, 
and when last seen over the mountains thirty-three miles, but 
the probability is that it was then much farther away than three 
hundred and twenty miles assumed in the computation, and that 
therefore the third altitude is too small. I am aware that some 
of the best authorities deem it improbable that a meteor can 
become heated by the passage through the earth’s atmosphere at 
a greater altitude than one hundred miles, and I do not press this 
observation as proof to the contrary, but I simply place it on record. 
It is to be regretted that not one of the observers referred the 
meteor’s position to the stars. There are estimated angles of 
elevation which support Capt. Honey, (No. 10), made it eighty- 
four miles when first seen and sixty-two at explosion, and others, — 
which although only estimated still prove that it must have been 
at a great elevation. 
ITS BRILLIANCE. 
Ido not remember any meteor either here or amongst the 
Tecords with a brilliance equal to this, which at a distance of at 
least three hundred and twenty miles could cast a much darker 
shadow than the moon. All who saw it were struck by the light 
yay Witch seemed like an electric flash-light, and at the vos 
Plosion and later the light seemed for a short time of various 
Colours. See Nos. 2,7, 10, 11, 15, No. 11 especially. 
ene ney given between reports Nos. 1 and 2, is Bees 
€ localities of the places from which the meteor was 
Seen, and as a matter of course the area over Which it was seen. 
