96 



REPORT 1855. 



gregation of minute, bright clouds, of the formation usually denominated 

 Cirrocumuli. 



At 9^ 7™ we had the regular "S- ^• 



cometary figure of fig. 5. 



This, the most durable form, 

 forcibly reminded one of the 

 drawings made by Sir John Her- 

 schel of Halley's comet, as seen 

 by him at the Cape of Good Hope 

 on the 28th of January 1836. 



The meteor commenced a slow, 

 regular motion, passing about a i i. u ^ *k<, 



degree below the star Alpha Arietis, towards a point somewhat above the 

 planet Saturn, at the same time rotating apparently on a pomt answenng 

 to the nucleus of the explosion, and expanding in every direction. 



At 9"^ 28*" its position in regard pig 6. 



to Saturn was as represented in 

 fig. 6, the external outline touch- 

 ing the planet. The meteor was 

 now extended in breadth to 12°, 

 its longest diameter reaching up- 

 wards nearly to the zenith. Its 

 rotary motiou had therefore been 

 equal to an angle of about 90° in 

 20 minutes of time. Although it 

 had now become a faint nebulous 

 light, yet it continued to exhibit 

 a well-defined boundary until past 

 10 o'clock, having been under ob- 

 servation more than an hour : I have never niet with any account of a 

 single meteor having been visible for so long a time. 



From the observations communicated by the Hon. William Mitchell ot 

 Nantucket, combined with our own, we have ascertained that the vertical 

 heio-ht of this meteor above the surface of the earth was about 50 miles, and 

 its distance from Cambridge 100 miles in a north-eastern direction. 



We have accounts of its having been seen from near Albany on the 

 Hudson river, Brooklyn, Long Island, Providence, Rhode Island, Nantucket, 

 Manchester, Cape Ann, Portland, Maine, Boscawen, and Peterborough in 

 New Hampshire, Quebec on the St. Lawrence, and the interior stations, 

 Springfield, Quincy, Pepperell, Framingham and Lancaster in Massachusetts, 

 and Norwich in Connecticut. 



We have no intelligence in regard to this meteor from Nova Scotia, where 

 it must have been seen if the sky was clear. It is much to be regretted that 

 among the thousands who witnessed this splendid phaenomenon, only so 

 small a number regarded it with sufficient interest to note th£ direction 

 of motion, position atnong the stars, and time of its first appearance and 

 duration. W.C.Bond. 



Cambridge Observatory, Oct. 14th, 1850. 



No. W.— Account of a Meteor accompanying a Thunder-storm and Earth- 

 quake in India. 

 [From the Bombay Times, Dec. 13.] 

 A correspondent calls our attention to the fact that in all likelihood Bom- 

 bay was visited by an earthquake which has been omitted in our enumera- 



