A remarkable meteorite observed in the neighbourhood last month was made the subject of a highly interesting address by Captain F. W. Tyler at last Monday's meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Captain Tyler said he first heard of the meteorite when taking a cruise the Revenue Steamer at the end of February. He learned from the keeper in charge of Steep Island Light-station that at 10.49 a.m. on February 13, with bright sunlight and a clear sky, he saw in the sky a brilliantly lighted' object. It passed with great rapidity over the island, and so close to the tower that he feared it might be hit, and disappeared behind Wood Island, four and a half miles distant. It left behind a trail of white woolly smoke, like cumulus cloud. It was brilliant, though not dazzlingly bright, clearly defined in shape, which was that of an elongated pear—it looked like a monster electric light bulb.
At first it was thought to be a Projectile fired for practice from a man-of-war, some new kind of aeria} torpedo, The meteorite passed the light-station at a distance of about 490 ft., and after an interval variously estimated at between 30 and 90 seconds, a loud report was heard, the noise @ greater than the discharge of an eighteen pounder fog gun. On the supposition that the interval between the passage and the explosion was sixty seconds, it was calculated that the meteorite fell about eleven miles from the island, near Video,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.