A CATALOGUE OP OBSERVATIONS OP LUMINOUS METEORS. 43 



No. 10. — Extract from a letter from Dr. Buist to Prof. Powell. 



"Meteors seen in India from June 1850 to May 1851. 

 By Dr. Buist, F.R.S., Bombay. 



" The following notices contain amongst them a list of meteors which have 

 been seen in India, in so far as I have been able to observe or to hear from 

 correspondents. The list does not in all likelihood contain a hundredth part 

 of those that have been noticed by Europeans, or a thousandth part of those 

 that have been visible in the sky ; nor is there any reason to suppose that 

 those which have been described have been by any means the most notable 

 or conspicuous. In India we have probably not one man, at an average, for 

 every thousand square miles, who thinks of making a note of, or of writing 

 about such things ; and all that can be done therefore is to accejjt of such 

 notices as we receive, — drawing, no conclusion from the number of meteors 

 described as to the number or magnitude of those that have been visible. 

 As the attention bestov/ed on such matters is every year on the inci'ease 

 amongst us, I am disposed to ascribe the scantiness of the list to a deficiency 

 of meteors visible in our sky rather than to any defect in the number of ex- 

 ertions of the observers. I have myself not been able to see one-tenth of 

 what I have been accustomed to notice, though my opportunities of observa- 

 tion have been as good as usual. There is a peculiarity in a large number of 

 the meteors I have observed in India, which I do not recollect to have seen 

 noticed. As they approach the termination of their course, they begin to 

 shine out and disappear at intervals of about a quarter of a second, present- 

 ing the appearance closely allied to that of a disc or quoit thrown up in the 

 air, and presenting alternately its edge and its face to the spectator. This 

 occurs in general two or three, occasionally four or five times, before the ex- 

 tinction of the meteor, and does so equally whether it explodes or not. 



" Of this list one aerolite has fallen to the ground, and been found, and for- 

 ■warded to the Asiatic Society's Museum. A second has without doubt im- 

 pinged upon the earth, but has not yet been discovered. It was seen in 

 bright sunshine ; the fragments thrown off alone appeared in a state of igni- 

 tion ; the central mass appeared black as it fell towards the earth, as if not 

 heated to redness ; and this most likely is the case almost always. But then 

 at night when meteors are generally observed, it is the ignited portions that 

 alone are visible. One meteor left a long train of hazy light behind it, 

 ■which was visible for nearly twenty minutes, and was mistaken for a comet 

 by those who had witnessed the train without observing the fireball itself. 

 We have four remarkable instances on record in India of meteors vanishing 

 gradually or leaving trains of light behind them after they had vanished :. 

 that seen in Palmacottah in 1838; it was the size of the full moon, and 

 Seemed to remain in one place for twenty minutes, when it grew gradually 

 fainter and fainter, and then disappeared ; that described by Capt. Shortrede 

 as seen from Charka in 1842, which, with its train, was nearly five minutes 

 visible ; that seen from Calcutta on the 2nd December 1825, first visible as 

 a ball of fire, then in the shape of a comet, in which form it remained for 

 several minutes, when it vanished ; and that described by Mr. Orlebar in the 

 Bombay Observatory Report for 1846, seen on the 7th of December, and 

 which left a luminous train behind it, visible for several seconds. The most 

 notable instance of this sort is that of Jenny Lind's meteor seen from Boston 

 on the 30th of September 1850, and which was visible for an hour. A very 

 brilliant meteor was seen at Aden on the 1st of April. We have no par- 

 ticulars regarding it, further than this, that it was mistaken by the sentry at 

 the Turkish Wall for an alarm rocliet, and that he discharged his musket 

 accordingly and gave the usual notice, when the whole garrison were sum- 



