[ 26 3 ] 
path defcribed by the dodlor. From this account it 
will follow, that the lower a meteor defcends, the 
more irregular its courfe will be; as it will then meet 
with the moft refinance, both from the denfity and 
the currents of the air. 
In regard to the velocity, it feems almofl incredible ; 
as we have fufficient data for computing it at the 
rate of 30 miles in a fecond. But if we allow, that 
it only moved through half the fpace in that time, 
we fhall find the progrefiion of this body to have 
been above 100 times fwifter than the mean celerity 
of a cannon ball, and nearly equal to that of the earth 
in its orbit round the fun. 
As to its real fize, we cannot pretend to determine 
that point with any precifion ; fince its dazzling 
brightnefs would occafion fome deception, and the 
apparent magnitude has been fo differently repre- 
fented by the obfervers. If the meteor, when neared: 
to Dublin, appeared to Mr. Garret equal to the full 
moon, then we fhall find, that its true diameter was 
about two miles ; and if the farmer at Ancram faw 
this body, whilft it was vertical at Cambridge, of a 
fize equal to the crown of his cap, or to about half 
that of the full moon, we cannot allow lefs than a 
mile for the real axis. Upon eflimating from the 
obfervations made at St. Andrews and Dunfermline, 
the diameter was at lead: half a mile, and perhaps 
much greater. However, as the imagination is fo 
apt to enlarge fuch objects, we fhall put the fize of 
the globe at the fmalleft, and reckon it only about a 
mile and a half round. 
The body mud: furely have been of a confiderable 
bulk to have yielded fuch a light, as that, when in the 
zenith 
