Chapman. — Notes on it Meteoric Appearance. 147 



My own first view must have been some instants (hardly 

 seconds) after the commencement. What I saw was a streak 

 of intense white light, with two small bulbous expansions near 

 the top, these expansions forming the brightest part ; also a 

 very small feathery expansion at the very top. 



I am now trying to work out the distance, a simple enough 

 problem given accurate observations ; but, unfortunately, there 

 are such discrepancies in the observations that the first busi- 

 ness is to find out and eliminate the incorrect ones— no easy 

 matter. 



It is a source of great pleasure to me to have to record this 

 interesting phenomenon, the more so because, so far, it would 

 appear that the occurrence was absolutely unique. No such 

 phenomenon has, to my knowledge, ever been recorded before- 

 Great meteors have often been seen and recorded, and then 

 partly calculated. I had the pleasure of seeing one of the greatest 

 on record — one that gave more light than the full moon, which 

 passed over an arc of 90° or more, and left a glowing train, 30° 

 or 40° long. But that train was gene in a few minutes. Yet 

 this object seen by us left a train which was still shining brightly 

 at the end of fifteen minutes, and was seen for another fifteen, 

 and perhaps even, as some say, for hours. I think I am justified 

 in saying that those who saw it saw something the like of which 

 has never been recorded. 



Since writing the above I have made inquiries in the hope of 

 reconciling the wide discordances of observation. I regret, 

 however, to say my attempts have been vain. This being the 

 case, it is useless to attempt to fix the exact position ; how- 

 ever, by graphical methods, selecting those measurements of the 

 position of the head which appear to me most satisfactory — 

 namely, Auckland azimuth, 258° true, altitude 15° ; Nelson azi- 

 muth, 330° true — I find this would seem to show that the head 

 of the streak was probably over a spot something like three 

 hundred miles about W. by S. from Auckland — i.e., over the 

 Tasman Sea. Its altitude above the earth was something like 

 seventy miles for a minimum, and may have been over a 

 hundred. If the brilliant streak was vertical it was about 

 seventy miles long, but as it was probably seen verv fore- 

 shortened it was probably many times that. The riband- 

 shaped cloud was several times as long as the bright streak, 

 but I do not think this was due to an actual lengthening, but 

 rather to the fact that previously invisible vapour in the track 

 of the meteor became visible by cooling. The widening of the 

 streak from a mere thread to a band some 2° wide was probably 

 chiefly due to expansion. It would appear to have had a final 

 thickness of some miles. This would indicate either a consider- 



