__-—sA CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 5 
7 APPENDIX. 
Details referred to in the Catalogue, from the original Records of Observations 
of luminous Meteors, communicated to Professor Powell by the Authors. 
No.1. Extract from a letter from G. T. Vigne, Esq. to Prof Powell. 
_ About the 10th or 12th of November 1843, I was descending the Da- 
-nube....near what is said to be the bridge of Severus..... about 5 p.m. 
's++++-I heard a loud report like that of a musket; the day was clear with- 
out a cloud ; I saw a perfectly white cloud or mist, evidently the result of the 
explosion, slowly dispersing in no particular shape, in three or four minutes. 
I should say it was about a mile or a mile and a half above the earth, and 
distant about four. No part of it seemed to descend ; it dispersed as it were 
from a stationary nucleus. When I first saw it, the white cloud might be 
about as large as the end of your finger held up at about twelve or eighteen 
inches from the eye.” 
_ 2. See Durham Advertiser, August 16th, 1844. No moon; clear atmo- 
sphere. Many meteors on the 8th; more on the 9th; very numerous and 
brilliant on the 10th. Nearly all in parallel directions from N.E. to S.W. 
Many in trains, apparently at great elevations. 11th, 12th, 13th cloudy ; 
14th clear, but no meteors. 
_ . Extract from the Malta Mail, see ‘ Times,’ August 18th, 1845. 
June 18th, at 9®30™p.m., brig Victoria, in lat. 36° 40! ; long. 13°44! E.; in 
a sudden calm after wind. “ An overpowering heat and stench of sulphur. 
At this moment three luminous bodies issued from the sea, about half a mile 
from the vessel, and remained visible ten minutes.” 
_ At Ainab on Mount Lebanon, on the same day, half an hour after sunset, 
was seen “a meteor composed of two luminous bodies, each apparently five 
_ times as large as the moon, with streamers or appendages from each joining 
the two; in the west; remained visible for an hour, taking an easterly course, 
and gradually disappeared.” 
Both accounts sent by a correspondent to Prof. Powell, but it does not 
appear whether the latter is from the same source as the former ; or on what 
- original authority either rests. 
__ 4, Extract from a letter to Prof. Powell from the Rev. J. Slatter, of Rose- 
hill, near Oxford. 
_ “Isawit [the meteor of Sept.25th, 1846] at the height of about 50°; it 
_ seemed to move along a meridian line, and rather to decline in height as it 
moved northerly, but not more than might be the effect of perspective if it 
- moved parallel to the earth; it passed over the zenith of London. Taking the 
longitude of the place of observation as 4" 55° W., the value of 1S=6°155 
mile, the distance due west of the meridian of London=about 45°65 miles, 
_and the height of the meteor from the earth is 54°4 miles. 
__ “It appeared less than half the diameter of the sun; which would give a 
‘diameter of 500 or 600 yards. At a rough guess its velocity might be 25 
iles in a second.” 
_ 5. Mr. David C. M‘Connell, in a letter to Prof. Powell, mentions that cn 
the 3rd of June 1846, at 8 p.m., at Moreton Bay, on the Brisbane River, South 
! Australia, about 27° S. lat. and 152° 30’ E. long., being within doors, he saw 
_ alight and heard an explosion like that of a cannon at a distance in a still 
clear night. Many natives stated that they had seen a bright body like the 
_ moon passing from east to west. It is also added that it passed at an altitude 
_ of about 75° to the south, and the explosion was heard when the meteor was 
_ about 30° from the western horizon. 
