house and the cabin is 17.5 m. From that cabin to the impact point, the distance is 30 meters. It is likely that Mr. Nicolai was never more than 70 m away from the phenomenon, and never less than 30 m.

Shape. Mr. Nicolai does not say very much about the shape of the phenomenon as it descended. After it stopped and he was able to get nearer, he was better able to observe the object. This is consistent with the claim that the approach and the landing took place very fast. The witness gives a precise description of two phases: when the object was on the ground (Figure 9), and when it took off (Figure 10).

When the object was on the ground, the witness does not compare the phenomenon to a known object, but he refers to it as a device ("engine"). He stresses that on the side of this device was a thick ridge, flat in color, that circled the object. Under the device were two things compared to feet or pods.

When the object takes off, Mr. Nicolai is able to see it from underneath. Its shape is circular. In this visible area he observes four circles of smaller diameter, arranged symmetrically in a perpendicular position. They are clearly seen and he compares them to masonry pails. (The witness, it will be recalled, was a professional contractor.)

Dimensions. Mr. Nicolai estimates the dimensions of the device with respect to available references before him. This is fairly simple to do since the object is located on a platform limited by a retaining wall of known height (2.5 m). He states that the outside diameter is about 2.5 m, the height is between 1.7 and 1.8 m, and the diameter of the small circles is that of a pail. It is noteworthy that the resulting diameter/height ratio (computed as 1.42) is very different from that shown on the witness' drawing of Figure 9 (computed as 5.66),

Fig. 10. Bottom view (object taking off).