om «i bt REPORT—1849. 
No. 3.—Letter from Dr. Buist to Professor Baden Powell, Oxford. — 
“Bombay, July 22, 1849. 
* Dear Sir,—I now enclose some notices of those meteors of lesser magni- 
tude and greater frequency noticed at Aden, by Mr. Moyes in 1843, and by 
my assistants while in charge of the observatory here, in 1843 and 1844. 
*T ain at present in communication with observers at thirty different stations 
scattered over India, from latitude 10° to 33°, and am making arrangements to 
get returns from every spot where an European is stationed in the service of 
government. By these means, I shall, I hope, have it in my power to furnish 
you with a long and minute catalogue of meteors every year. Careful simul- 
taneous observations along chains of stations will soon come to give us the 
relation of different meteors to the stars and constellations they seem to ap- 
proach or traverse, and furnish us with the elements of computing their size 
and distance. ‘The newspapers I have already sent will have given you all 
the information I possess in reference to the larger meteors; in the “Times” 
now forwarded, is a description of one seen at Kurrachee on the 25th of June 
(our sky at this season is covered with clouds), which, like that of the 19th 
of March, was heard to explode. 
“Tie leading characteristics which distinguish our larger and lesser aéro- 
lites are the following :—the larger generally appear as luminous as a star of 
the first, the lesser scarcely so much as a star of the third magnitude. 
“ The light of the larger meteors is generally orange, bluish or greenish, 
hardly ever white. It resembles that of a star of a Roman candle, as if given 
out by a considerable mass of matter; it never exhibits rays like a fixed star 
or the light from electricity ; it is never at all dazzling. ‘The meteor always - 
seems to increase in velocity and bulk as it proceeds in its path, the result 
probably of perspective ; and when approaching the termination of its course, 
it commonly flames out with unusual brilliancy ; there are about as many 
which disappear at once, as if extinguished, as those which burst and fall in 
fragments. The fragments always cease to be visible at some 5° to 15° from 
the ground. The only meteors that have been heard to explode this season 
were those of the 19th of March, heard at Aurungabad, and 25th of June, 
heard at Kurrachee. 
“From the Ist of June to the Ist of September our sky is thick and cloudy. 
“If meteors fall over the twenty-four hours indiscriminately, the number 
entering our atmosphere must be immense. They are not visible till after 
sunset, and by eight or nine o'clock we are all indoors, by ten we are in bed; 
two hours thus is all the time allowed for observation. We expect to derive 
the greatest advantages from the services of European sentries on duty, as 
we are now striving, with every hope of success, to engage the army in our 
service. 
“Our November meteors cross the sky in all directions: they very much 
resemble fire-flies, only they are much more swift and rectilineal in their 
movements. They do not alter either in apparent speed or size as they pro- 
ceed ; they never flame out or appear to burst ; they very rarely approach the 
horizon, and having traversed ten or twenty degrees of space, become lost in 
darkness. “TJ ever am, 
“ Most faithfully yours, 
“ GeorGE Buist.” 
No. 4.—From the Bombay Times, November 1, 1847. 
“On the 7th of September, about half-past six p.m., a large fire-ball was 
seen at Poona to shoot from nearly north to south: it then made a sudden 
sweep, and proceeded nearly at right angles to its previous path. After being 
_ visible for five or six seconds, it split into a number of large fragments, which 
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