ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 369 



After some remarks on some of the other comets, Prof. Alexander 

 says, " These facts and coincidences, in so far as they go, agree in 

 indicating a near appulse, if not an actual collision, of Mars with a 

 large comet in 1815 or 1816 ; that the comet was thereby broken into 

 three parts, whose orbits (it may be) received even their present form; 

 viz. that still presented by the comets of 1812, 1815, and 1846, IV., 

 which are fragments of the dissevered cornet."' 



TEE METEOR OF SEPTEMBER 30. 



A METEOR of a remarkable character and unusual brilliancy was ob- 

 served at the Cambridge Observatory on the evening of Sept. 30, and 

 has been described by Mr. W. C. Bond in the Boston Traveller. lie 

 says, " My attention was called to this phenomenon by Miss Jenny 

 Lind, who, happening at the time of its first appearance to be looking 

 at the planet Saturn through the great equatorial telescope, nearly in 

 the direction of the meteor's path, was startled by a sudden flash of light, 

 no doubt much concentrated by the power of the glass ; probably not 

 more than a second of time intervened before the meteor exploded, leav- 

 ing a bright train of light some eight degrees long, extending from near 

 the Head of Medusa towards a point three degrees below the star Al- 

 pha Arietis, this being the direction of motion, and projecting a portion 

 of its mass forward about two degrees. This took place at 8h. 54m. 

 m. s. t. of the Observatory, and in or very near the small constellation 

 ' Musca Borealis,' in right ascension 2h. 30m. and north declination 27 

 degrees. There were numerous radiations, but nothing sparkling in 

 its appearance. At 8h. 57m. this had subsided into a serpentine fig- 

 ure about half a degree broad in the widest part and ten degrees long. 

 At 9 o'clock the preceding portion had extended upward, or, as ex- 

 pressed by a person who noticed the same appearance at Framingham, 

 it appeared ' to draw up its head like a serpent.' 



" During these changes, the meteor had continued a bright, con- 

 spicuous object, some ten degrees in length, lying nearly horizontal. 

 It was examined with three different telescopes, the comet-seeker, 

 a four-foot refractor, and the great equatorial. The appearance was 

 that of a congregation of minute, bright clouds, of the formation usu- 

 ally denominated cirro-cumuli. At 9h. 7m. we had the regular come- 

 tary figure [the curved part had separated from the straight, and 

 formed a sort of oblong semicircle surrounding the end of the straight 

 portion]. This, the most durable form, forcibly reminded me of the 

 drawings made by Sir John Herschel of Halley's comet, as seen by 

 him at "the Cape of Good Hope, on the 2Sth of January, 1836. 



" The meteor now commence-d a slow, regular motion, passing about 

 a degree below the star Alpha Arietis, towards a point somewhat 

 ;:l;nve the planet Saturn, at the same time rotating apparently on a 

 point answering to the nucleus of the explosion, and expanding in ev- 

 ery direction. At Oh. 28m. the external outline of the circular portion 

 was in contact with Saturn. The meteor was now extended in breadth 

 to twelve degrees, its longest diameter reaching upwards nearly to the 

 zenith. Its rotary motion had therefore been equal to an angle of 



