Pioneer And Democrat

EXTRAORDINARY METEOR.—A meteor of extraordinary magnitude recently passed over the northern part of Pennsylvania in a nearly easterly course, over or near the northern part of New Jersey, the S. E. corner of New York and Long Island Sound, and fell into the ocean S. E. of Nantucket. It was distant about one hundred miles from Boston, when bearing south. Its altitude was about twenty miles above the sea to the south of New Bedford. Its velocity was twenty or thirty miles a second. It was seventy to eighty miles from the Baltimore steamer whose masts 'it just grazed,' and yet further from the observer who 'dodged it in Waltham.'

The N. Y. Evening Post says of it:—

Although science has, to a great extent, stripped these atmospheric and other phenomena of their mysterious terror, there is still sufficient mystery about their advent to inspire awe as well as admiration. Such a meteor as flashed across our horizon last night, though it be explained by scientific men, and its harmlessness demonstrated, will yet be regarded by many with something more than a purely scientific interest.

It appeared at about 10 o'clock over the upper part of our city. The night was warm and close, and the skies were occasionally illuminated by vivid flashes of sheet lightning. The heat of the weather had brought the great majority of our population to their doors and windows, when suddenly, in a silence more impressive than any thunder-shock, a meteor shot across the sky. Its brilliancy was so great that people at once supposed there was a fire near by: but, looking up, they saw two balls of flame coursing across the sky from the northwest, and going towards the southeast, like two chariots of fire urging their way in some mysterious race over the mighty course of the firmament. The motion was majestic rather than rapid, and gave myriads of people an opportunity of witnessing the sight, while the apparent nearness of the flame to the earth caused many to suppose at first that it was merely a pyrotechnical display.

It presented different aspects at different times. When first seen it appeared like a blue star, surrounded by a thick mist coming from the west, which, on nearing the zenith, changed to a red ball of flame; this soon split, the two balls keeping near together until lost in the distance. Some of those who saw it, thought it fell near Broadway and Fiftieth street, while others traced it with the eye as far as the East river, on its way horizontally over the city. Of the size of these balls of fire it is impossible to form any accurate estimate. They appeared to be as large as a dinner-plate, with trails eight or ten feet in length; yet we learn this morning that at very nearly the same time that our observations were made the meteor also passed over Albany, while from various points along the Hudson we have received information showing that its orbit may have been, perhaps, of planetary dimensions, and that it was much larger and much higher than it seemed at the time to any who saw it.