C 248 ] 
fc or fore-part appeared fomewhat broader than the 
1C fall moon j that no found was heard after its dif- 
“ appearance ; that the time was about nine at night, 
t£ on Sunday the 26th of November 
XXV. In 
* When Dr. Steelman Tent me this account, he had omitted 
taking the bearings ; but, in his next letter, he told me, “ he had 
“ fupplied that aefeef, and found, that the firft appearance to the 
“ obfervers (when the meteor came from behind the building that 
“ intercepted the fight of it), had been about fouth by eaft | eaft ; 
“ and that it had difappeared behind the fteeple at about fouth by 
“ weft | weft ; that, during this fhort courfe, it neither feemed to 
“ them to afeend nordefeend.” 
By Moll’s map, the firft of thefe bearings interfe&s the fuppofed 
traift of the meteor in Weftmorland, about 14 miles weft of Ap- 
pleby, diftant about 102 miles from Dunfermline; but cuts the 
trait fo obliquely, that a very fmall error in the bearing, or in the 
path of the meteor, would make a conftderable difference in the 
following calculation. The other bearing cuts the trait near the 
fouth- weft corner of the fhire of Lanerk, diftant about 46 miles from 
Dunfermline. 
The above meafures being in miles of 60 to a degree, give the 
height of the meteor, when firft feen at Dunfermline, to be about 
54 ftatute miles, and at the laft bearing to be about 24 ftatute 
miles, upon making allowance for the curvature of the earth. I fuf- 
peit, that the obfervers here made the apparent altitude too low ; 
but, however that may be, from hence the dipping or obliquity of 
the courfe downwards is manifeft. 
It was faid, that the head was fomewhat broader than the full 
moon. Let us give fome allowance to the imagination, and fup- 
pofe the head was but equal to the full moon, and that only when the 
meteor was at the neareft. In this cafe, as the diftance of the moon 
from the earth (about 240000 miles) is to the real diameter of the 
moon (about 2180 miles) ; fo was the diftance of the meteor (about 
59 miles) to its real diameter : which will thus be found to be about 
half a mile. But if the apparent diameter of the head at its firft ap- 
pearance (that is, at the greateft diftance from the obfervers), was 
equal to that of the full moon, then the real diameter of the me- 
teor was about } or ) part more than a mile. If it was indeed 
fomewhat larger than the moon, then the real diameter might have 
been 
