A REMARKABLE METEOR.

Timaru Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 1785, 20 June 1895, Page 4

A REMARKABLE METEOR.

<-.:„:! j r -:. t ■■'.;:♦_ ■-[■;;' ■■ eitraoVdinary^reporte frona.qbjintry correspondents were ' .Vrecefltly ,pubi lißhed by $2 HV C-- R.ussell, .the N^W Soutii^ Wales Government 'Astronomeri giving par tieiilars of ' a mbst : .remark^ble meteor whicfc wag^een m various par^ of the '-CQloriy/ :on" 'the night of M.ayJthj He li&^ leceiyed an ricqourit of ti'errioi* 'having oQcurreaat.a pldce' called Bedobba about , the ; same time. _- Mr Russell's informant said that the 'tremOJ was'.accompahied by a noise simUar to: that made; by art iron tank rotlett rapidly' over £ocks. The glasses iri his house rattted- together, and the keror serie Idhips on the table tilted and flared up- as the- noise • passed; A- mailman while -travelling* some* considerable distance away reported that at about the time the ; trem!or was felt he saw ah enormous- imeteov^ -andi some ' minutes after hearda loud noise caused, aa he thought, by it exploding. A man who was camping out m another partof the district wrote that'he waft awakened by thenoise of the metebr- passing 'overhead, and thought for a moment the moon was falling, so large 'wad the nieteorv /1i had a tail of flame i and* ambke Apparently 'tweniy yards longv and the Hght itgayecompletely?snuffed out the moon, which' was nearthe full. A squatter on the Lachlan River, thirty miles west of Gondoblin, reported. tfiat ©V -the night-iii question^ at- 11.30' ipito.y a meteor rose from the northern horizon, and 'made its way swiftly 'towards -the west, and; disap. peared. The light shown ■ was most vivid ; throwing strong shadows of trees Ac./ on the -groundv- although it was bright -moonlight: ~t About twenty min r utes after the meteor had gone,; faint rumblings i.werfe heani to thehorthj ret-semblingi-viery digtanib thunder.- Another runholder some twenty- miles distant, wrote that shortly: before eleven o'clock on^the same night there was a-very loud noree'like thunder, ; only '.much' louder, which lasted for a considerable number •of seconds I . ' ?'On going outside I saw a large body of fire m the west, and it ' feaVelied rights across the sky' m a souths easterly) ' The ball of fire seemed to me totbe sit m diameter, and as it travelled Tt-'sent out long' tongues ditfldta^.v. The night was beautifully clear, with no wind till after the meteor, when a few strong gusts came along.!' Mffiusßells pomts'out that this magnificent meteor, was seen m various places m a tract of country over 5000 square miles m .extant*, and comes to the conclusion • that it is quite possible that it caused the:jear,l3i trenibr., alluded to by several of Ms correspondents.