232 Mr. J. Glaisher on the Meteor *mhich appeared 



but without noise. A shower of luminous fragments, like 

 red-hot stones, was discharged, or rather fell through, but 

 were soon extinguished. The whole phsenomenon was vi- 

 sible, as well as I could judge, for about sixty seconds. In 

 general appearance it more resembled what is usually under- 

 stood by a meteor, but its magnitude and apparent nearness 

 were remarkable. Had it however exploded with detonation, 

 1 should have supposed it to be an aerolite." 



' XX. From Carrington, near Nottingham. J. K. Sewell, 

 Esq., in a letter to the Astronomer Royal, says — 



" At about 45 minutes past 10 o'clock on the night of Mon- 

 day the 11th inst., when descending the hill into Nottingham, 

 from the north my attention was suddenly attracted by a 

 bright light, apparently equal to that of afull moon in aclear sky, 

 which brilliantly illuminated every object around. On raising 

 my eyes to ascertain the cause of so unusual an appearance, I 

 beheld a most splendid meteor, apparently very near and 

 crossing my path in a direction from about S.W. to N.E. It 

 was descending. Its colour was that of the flame of potas- 

 sium on the surface of water, and of intense brilliancy. Its 

 length was about 2° 30'. Its head was whiter than its central, 

 which looked like a brilliant pink flame. It was visible to 

 me during three or four seconds, and just before it disappeared 

 seemed to be nearly poised in the air, but near to the earth, 

 and emitted numerous red sparks from the end of its tail. No 

 sound was audible." 



At the request of the Astronomer Royal, Mr. Sewell went 

 again to the spot where he was when he saw the meteor, 

 taking with him a quadrant to measure such altitudes as he 

 could best recollect, and a compass to take the bearing, and 

 the following is the additional information furnished. 



" Placing myself on the spot from which I saw the meteor, I 

 found that the direction of my path exactly corresponded 

 with that of the magnetic meridian*, consequently differing 

 from that of the terrestrial meridian by the amount of the 

 variation of the compass. On raising the quadrant as nearly 

 as possible to the position in which the meteor first became 

 visible to me, I found that its elevation must have been 13°; 

 this agrees with the opinion of a friend with whom I was 

 when the meteor was seen, and who kindly assisted me in 

 endeavouring to fix its position." 



XXI. Blakeney, Norfolk, as extracted from the Illustrated 

 London News of Feb. 16, 1850. 



*' As I was driving home last night at twenty minutes to 



* The variation of the compass was 23° 20' nearly. 



