48 REPORT — 1851. 



in about half a minute they dimmed and vanished. They were of the same 

 bright red hue as the meteor itself. The meteor was about the size of the 

 planet Jupiter at its brightest, and of a somewhat deeper tint than Mars. 



No. 21. — January 16th. At a quarter past three o'clock a.m., Dr. Cole, 

 Assistant-Garrison-Surgeon, on returning from visiting some of his patients, 

 saw a very brilliant meteor, nearly double the size of the planet Venus at its 

 brightest, shoot along from E. to S.W. It appeared to be about 18° above 

 the horizon. It was follov/ed by a long train of sparks, which disappeared 

 almost simultaneously with the meteor. It vanished without explosion or 

 change of appearance. 



No. 22. — February 24th. A large meteor was seen by Mr. Tiller, mer- 

 chant, Bombay, about ten I'.M. It shot across the sky from S.W. to N.E., 

 and vanished without explosion. 



No. 23. — " A Correspondent mentions a striking and very beautiful phe- 

 nomenon, seen from Mazagon about ten o'clock ou Saturday evening, 19th 

 April, when a display of meteors, following each other in succession, appeared 

 from a point about 15° above the north-eastern horizon. In the space of 

 little more than half an hour about twenty were observed ; they darted across 

 the sky in all directions : some of them shot upwards ; by much the greater 

 part moved tovv'ards the south or south-east. The largest of them were about 

 the size of Veims at her brightest, and so down to mere specks of light. None 

 of them were observed to explode, but the largest of them left long trains of 

 light behind them." — Bombay Times, April 24th. 



No. 24.. — " The following is an extract from the letter of a Cawnpore 

 correspondent : — ' Your paper of the 24th ultimo came in this morning ; I 

 have intended writing you several days past, but I have been stirred up by 

 your notice of the meteors at Mazagon, your correspondent states, the pre- 

 ceding Saturday [April 191. We had here tlie precise similar beautiful phse- 

 nomenon, time much the same, but your correspondent and myself differ by 

 twenty-four hours, as I have noted them in my diary on Sunday evening as 

 follows ; — This evening from eight to ten p.m. constant meteors flying across, 

 chiefly from N. towards S., often three or four at a time. The largest I did 

 not see. I had my face towards N., facing a white building, when suddenly 

 the wnole was as bright as you see in a vivid flash of sheet lightning. Ere 

 I could turn round it was out of sight, but leaving a vertical line of light, 

 lasting perhaps ten seconds, from Sirius downwaid as far as I could see, a 

 bungalow being close. This was the only vertical one, all the others shoot- 

 ing off at various degrees in a horizontal direction, but all from N.E. up to 

 N.W., not towards, as all had a southerly direction. Your expressed wish 

 to have information from those who may have seen the phaenomenon, induced 

 me to take up my pen.' " — Bombay Times, May 16. 



No. 25. — " Meteoric Showers of the 19 th April. — ^We extract the following 

 notice from a Kolapore letter, of a magnificent shower of meteors witnessed 

 there on tlve 19th; the same phsenomenon was seen at the same hour from 

 Bombay, and was described in our paper of the 24th; it is curious that no 

 other notice of an ajipearance so striking should have been given us, though 

 ten P.M. is, we allow, a bad hour for out-of-door observation in India : — ' 1 

 do not see any mention made of the appearance elsewhere ; but on looking 

 out about half-past ten on the night of the 19th April, Sunday, the entire 

 sky to the north was seen in a perfect blaze with meteors shooting from east 

 to west. The phsenomenon lasted about five minutes, when all was again 

 still.' " — Bombay Times, May 6. 



