Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1876 — Killed by a Meteor. [ARTICLE]

Killed by a Meteor.

A correspondent in New South Wales gives, the following particulars of a remarkable accident: On the night of the so .ar eclipse a great deal of electrical disturbance was observed, and all through the month meteors have been almost nightly. Just after the eclipse one of the most singular incidents probably that have ever occurred took place. As the schooner Urania was passing Crowley Head about half an hour after midnight on the 18th ult., a meteor, described as being like a ball of fire, fell immediately over the vessel’s stern, exploded with a loud report like that of a heavy piece of ordnance, and k hied the steersman, a man named Hales. Eveiy one on board felt a violent shock, like that of a volcanic battery, but no one except Sales was seriously injured. Sparks of fire were scattered all about the deck, and the flash of the meteor was so brilliant that the steward, who was lying in a berth below, saw fire through the caulked seam of the deck. His cabin was at the same time filled with .smoke, which blackened some papers lying about. The paint on all the aft part of tlie ship was discolored, similarly to what it might have been had the ship been smoked with charcoal. A peculiar, indescribable smell was perceived for some time after the explosion, and a quantity of flakes like the soot from a steamer’s funnel were scattered about the deck. The meteoi apparently traveled with the wind, which' was from the south. Tlie body of Sales, the man who was killed, appeared to be blackened, but showed no other mjirkß of injury. Sales was a young man about twenty-three years of age, ana is described as a smart seaman. —Mr. George Smith, the Assyrian explorer, is expected to return to England soon, by the way of Bagdad and Bombay.