J. H. Serres on Fiery Meteors seen during the Day. 115 



Mr President, is the fact sOch as I have seen it : On the 7th of 

 last month, about a quarter after four in the evening, after hav- 

 ing, with all other people, observed the eclipse of the sun, I 

 took a fancy to have a walk in the fields. On crossing the town, 

 I saw at first, in one of its public places, a pretty numerous 

 group of individuals of every age and sex, who had their eyes 

 fixed in the direction of the sun. Among this group, I remark- 

 ed only a young student of law, named Cezanne^ but still pre- 

 occupied with the eclipse, I passed without remarking that, in 

 the position in which this young man was, as well as the persons 

 who were with him, they could not perceive the sun, which left me 

 in the belief that they were all looking at the eclipse, as I had 

 myself been doing. 



Further on I met another group, having their eyes, in like man- 

 ner, turned towards the sun ; but as, at this time, I noticed that 

 the individuals, composing this group, were in- a street, and com- 

 pletely in the shade, I understood that they were looking at 

 something else than the occultation of the sun, and then it came 

 into my liead to question the Sieur Thomme, a veterinary artist, 

 who was among them, in order to know from him the object that 

 fixed his attention. He replied to me, " We are looking at the 

 stars which are detaching themselves from the sun.^' " What say 

 you.^" " Yes, sir; but look yourself, that will be the shortest way."" 

 I looked, and saw, in fact, not stars, but balls of fire, of a dia- 

 meter equal to that of the largest stars, which were projected, 

 in various directions, from the upper hemisphere of the sun, with 

 an incalculable velocity, and although this velocity of projection 

 appeared the same in all, yet they did not all attain the same 

 distance. 



These globes were projected at unequal and pretty short in- 

 tervals. Several were often projected at once, but always di- 

 verging from one another. Some of them described a right line, 

 and were extinguished in the distance ; some described a para^ 

 bolic line, and were in like manner extinguished ; others again, 

 after having removed to a certain distance in a direct line, re- 

 trograded upon the same line, and seemed to enter still luminous 

 into the sun's disc. The grovmd of this magnificent picture was 

 a sky-blue, somewhat tinged with brown. 



This, Mr President, is what I saw, and what I attest, as well 



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