
A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 237 
“T repeated my observations the following morning, and then saw one such 
single body pass in the same direction as those of the preceding day. 
“They occupied a tolerably well-defined zone of about 18° in breadth ; 
and, though with some exceptions, their direction was due east and west. 
Their motion was perfectly uniform, so far as I was able to follow them with 
the instrument at liberty; and they were observed continuously by myself and 
members of my family, accustomed to the use of instruments, both by day 
and night. 
«‘ The telescope I employed on this occasion is one of 34 feet focal length, 
and 23 inches aperture, by Mr. Dollond, of faultless performance and mounted 
equatoreally by Mr. Jones of Charing Cross, the circles divided by Mr. 
Rothwell of London, and reading off to 5!'. 
“IT understand that a similar phenomenon has been witnessed by Mr. 
Cooper of Markree Castle, County of Sligo, though I have not communicated 
with that gentleman on the subject; but I take the opportunity of subjoining 
a portion of the contents of a letter to me from Charles B. Chalmers, Esq., 
F.R.A.S., now residing at Jugon, Cotes du Nord, France. 
“‘ He thus writes :—‘ About the latter end of the year 1849, I witnessed a 
phenomenon similar to that which you saw in September 1850, in every re- 
spect, excepting that I thought some of the bodies were elongated, though 
certainly the majority were globular; and their brightness appeared to me 
about equal to that of Venus, as seen at the same time. 
“‘<T was then residing at Weston-Super-Mare, in Somersetshire ; and the 
instrument with which I saw them was a 5-feet telescope, equatoreally 
mounted, in a fixed observatory. , 
_ “*T was engaged similarly to yourself in observing the planet Mercury; 
about 4 past 10 a.m. I was at first inclined to believe it must be the seed of 
some plants of the thistle nature floating in the air, but from my position that 
could not have been the case. 
“<« The wind on the day I observed the phenomenon was very slight; but 
such as it was it came from the sea. The bodies all appeared sharply defined, 
no feathery appearances that I could detect ; and I did not observe any differ- 
ence in their brightness during the time I observed them’. 
“ Mr. Chalmers, then, after offering some remarks on a communication 
made by Mr. Dawes to the Roy. Astron. Society’s Notice in April 1852, says, 
‘My impression certainly is that the phenomena observed by Mr. Dawes 
and myself were not similar, and I trust that future observers may throw a 
clear light on the subject; for though Mr. Dawes is a very high authority, 
he is not infallible’. 
“I feel it right, myself, to notice, that in the paper referred to by Mr. 
Chalmers, Mr. Dawes conceives an appearance which he saw to have been 
produced by seeds floating in the atmosphere. 
“ No one, I am sure, would doubt the correctness of his observations on 
such subjects; but, excepting in the season of the year, there is so little real 
similarity, that they cannot be parallel cases; and in his concluding observa- 
tion that ‘had such a dense shoal of bodies so brilliant as those described by . 
me, as seenin September, passed in the night, they would have sufficed to turn 
darkness into day;’ no doubt but that would have been the case, as it was 
_ in the phenomenon witnessed by Messrs. Olmsted and Palmer in America, 
as recorded by Capt. Smyth and Baron Humboldt. 
“In conclusion, I may be permitted to say to the British Association, that 
I had been, at the time my family and myself witnessed what I now commu- 
nicate, a careful observer with superior instruments for upwards of 28 years, 
but that I never saw such appearance before nor since that period. 
3 “ WittrAm Reap, M.A.” 
