[ 220 ] 
of London), told me, “ That he had not a view of 
“ the meteor himfelf, but had converfed with three 
cc countrymen, his parifhioners, who had feen it: 
“ that they had all agreed in obferving the light to 
u be greater than that of moonfhine ; and that one 
* { of them, in particular, faid, it was fo great that he 
“ could eafily have feen a pin lying on the ground : 
“ that the body at firb was like a large fhooting bar, 
“ but with a flower motion : that its direction was 
“ northerly: that, during its progrefs, it increafed in 
“ fize, leaving a bream of light behind ; and at lab, 
“ as it declined to the horizon, its lower part became, 
“ in appearance, as broad as his hand, whilb the 
“ length of the whole feemed to be about five feet, 
“ of a conical figure, ending in a point upwards : 
u that, before it reached the horizon, it burb into a 
“ flame, refembling a flafh of lightning, and then 
“ immediately difappeared Dr. Shipley going to 
the fpot where the obferver had bood, and making 
him point to fome trees at a dibance, over which, he 
faid, the meteor difappeared, the Dobor found, by 
taking the altitude with an inbrument, that it had 
* From this obfervation it appears, that the ftream of light, 
called the tail, was not feen at fiift ; probably becaufe the meteor 
was in too high a region for the air to make any refiftance to the 
flame; but when the body defcended lower, then the air, tho’ ftill 
extremely rarified, yet, from the extraordinary velocity of the me- 
teor, would make fome oppohtion to it, and drive the flame back- 
wards to form the tail. That the meteor defcended obliquely, will 
be more fully fhewn afterwards, tho’ the circumftance mentioned 
above of a conical figure ending in a point upwards, as it declined 
towards the horizon, is. one proof of that fab.j 
i 
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