40 REPORT—1549. 
«“ Srr,—One of your correspondents I see has sent you an account of a 
fire-ball which he saw on Monday (19th) evening last at about half-past six 
o'clock. The same meteor was visible here at Surat; and so much did its 
extreme brilliancy and very rapid motion give the appearance of nearness to 
it, that we thought it must have fallen close to the town. Of course to speak 
by the card, we ought to say that at about half-past six we saw a meteor 
which, &c. &c., but you will see from what follows, that it is not a very rash 
inference to conclude it to be the same. If you can get from some of your 
friends an estimate of its apparent altitude, and the direction of its motion as 
seen at Bombay, the data sent with this will perhaps help you to a rough 
approximation to its real height, volume, and path. It passed then from 
west to east across our meridian to the south of us; was about 30° high 
when first seen, and perhaps 10° when it vanished (25° perhaps when on the 
meridian), and must have had an apparent diameter of 4! or 5' (say for the 
sake of comparison with other estimates, about one-eighth of the diameter of 
the moon). It was intensely incandescent, the surface appearing as if liquid 
with heat (having so large a diameter, one seemed to be able to look well 
into the surface); in colour white, with perhaps a slight tinge of green. 
(Query—the optical effect of contrast with an evening sky ?)—H.” 
« P.S.—A friend accustomed to estimate angular magnitudes, and who saw 
the meteor, confirms the account I here give you, but adds that he ‘saw the 
train distinctly visible about 5° higher than Canopus.’ This, from the posi- 
tion of Canopus at the time, would give the meridian altitude about 21° 
instead of 25°.” 
“Surat, 24th March.” 
“ Sir,—A meteor of the same description as the one seen in Bombay on 
the evening of the 19th, was also seen at Jaulna at the same hour.—G. F.” 
“Camp, Jaulna, March 24.” 
“ Sir,—The meteor noticed by your correspondent in your last issue was 
also observed by several persons at this station on the same evening, and 
about the same hour (Monday the 19th, half-past six o’clock). It seemed 
to arise a little to the south of, and above Venus, and to travel in a northerly 
direction; I should say N.N.W. About a minute and a half after it disap- 
peared, two reports, following each other rapidly, were heard, like the ex- 
plosion of a mine at a considerable distance.—ASTERCA.” 
“ Aurungabad, 24th March, 1849.” 
I have been also favoured with a sight of a private letter from an astro- 
nomical friend to the Editor of the Bombay Times, of which I am permitted 
to give the following extract :— 
“ Poona, 2nd April, 1849. . 
“......Can you make anything out of the different reports of the meteor 
of the 19th ult., so as to have even a guess at its whereabouts? I cannot 
by any means éorture them into an agreement, and have come to the conclu- 
sion that there must have been ¢wo at intervals of perhaps fifteen or twenty 
minutes, and that they have been confounded together; e.g. how could the 
same object have passed the south meridian at Surat, at an altitude of 21° 
from W. to E., and also have burst out in the zenith of Sholapoor and moved 
N.E.? The latter could have been seen only to the east of the meridian at 
Surat. Also if the interval between the appearance and report at Aurungabad 
is worth anything, the distance from that place could not have been much 
more than twenty miles, and this does not seem to tally well with either of 
the other two. I had no watch about me to note the exact time here, but it 
was only a few minutes after sunset, certainly not so late as a quarter-past 
six, while at Surat the difference of longitude must have made it a trifle 
earlier: so that the times do not agree very well either.” 

