54 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ers and certain comets, and spoke of the coincidences as being 

 numerous enough, and sufficiently exact to render desirable the 

 further cultivation of cometary astronomy by star-shower obser- 

 vations. The report of 1875 pointed out that the work of properly 

 treating meteor observations had become so great as to be beyond 

 the power of the Association to grapple with it, and commended 

 the arrangements which M. Leverrier was making for that study. 

 In 1878 the committee, finding it probable that the highest attain- 

 able accuracy in mapping the observed directions of the apparent 

 paths of shooting-stars was the real key to the solution of the 

 problem presented by their nightly flights, and that the question 

 of the possible connection of fire-balls and aerolites, or large 

 stony masses, with such showers and accordingly, it might be, 

 in certain cases, with comets depended for its solution on ac- 

 curate observations of these meteors, recommended the study as 

 an attractive one, and gave a series of directions for following 

 it up. 



A committee was appointed at the Aberdeen meeting of the 

 British Association in 1859 to make observations, by means of a 

 balloon, in the higher regions of the atmosphere. Nothing was 

 done for two years, for want of a balloon and an observer. The 

 committee was reappointed at the Manchester meeting in 1861 ; a 

 balloon was contracted for with Mr. Coxwell, an expert aeronaut, 

 and Mr. Glaisher, the most active member of the committee, vol- 

 unteered to go up with him and make the observations. Twenty- 

 eight ascents were made from Wolverhampton, the Crystal Pal- 

 ace, and other places not far from London, between the 17th of 

 July, 1862, and the 26th of May, 1866, of which seven were made 

 into extraordinarily high regions, from 22,884 feet to 37,000 feet, 

 or seven miles. In all these ascents, Mr. Glaisher remarks, in the 

 introduction to " Travels in the Air," " I used the balloon as I 

 found it. The desire which influenced me was to ascend to the 

 higher regions and travel by its means in furtherance of a better 

 knowledge of atmospheric phenomena; neither its management 

 nor its improvement formed a part of my plan." 



The first ascent was marked by meeting a warm current at a 

 great elevation. Clouds were entered at 4,000 feet, which proved 

 to be also 4,000 feet thick. The temperature at starting being 

 59 Fahr., fell to 45 at 4,000 feet, and to 26 at 10,000 feet, from 

 which it remained stationary up to 13,000 feet. Then it rose to 

 31 at 15,500 feet, and 42 at 19,500 feet, after which it fell rapidly 

 to 16 at 26,000 feet. 



In the ascent of September 1, 1862, the curious phenomenon was 

 observed of the formation of clouds along the course of the 

 Thames from the Nore to Richmond. The clouds followed the 

 river in its courso through all its windings, not departing from it 



