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 SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



METEOROLOGY AND HYDROLOGY. 



1. Fire-Bail at Bombay . — On the evening of Monday the 19th 

 February, about half-past six o'clock, just as the sun had set, and twi- 

 light was yet strong, a magnificent fire-ball was seen to shoot across 

 the island from south-west to north-east, and burst over the moun- 

 tain range beyond. It was so large, so luminous, and so rapid in 

 its movements, that it appeared to many as if within a hundred feet 

 or so of the ground. It was of the most beautiful greenish- white, of 

 dazzling splendour ; on bursting, the fragments were of a strong, 

 rather darkish, red. It was seen over the whole of the island of 

 Bombay, and at almost every intermediate part for some 300 miles 

 into the interior. It appears to have been at a great elevation, and, 

 as suggested by a Poonah correspondent, was probably some hundreds 

 of miles from the nearest spectator when first seen. The volume of 

 the mass, the length of its course, and the velocity with which it 

 rushed along, may from this be imagined. As above observed, when 

 first seen at Bombay it appeared as if nearly over the dockyard ; in 

 this all the observers who noticed it in different parts of the island 

 concur. Curiously enough, we have not been favoured with a single 

 notice of it from any one on board the ships in the harbour ; from 

 the anchorage we have no doubt it would also appear to the east- 

 ward. At Poonah, lat. 18° 30' N., long. 72° 2' E., it was observed 

 at a quarter-past six at the altitude of about 30° ; it was visible from 

 Poorundhur, twenty-six miles east of Poonah. It was observed at 

 Aurungabad, lat. 19° 45' N., long. 75" 30' E., as if to the south ; 

 and from Siiolapore, lat. 17° 40' N., long. 76° E., where its appear- 

 ance was moht carefully described as seen in a noi-th-easterly direc- 

 tion. It was also carefully observed at Surat, 21° 11' N., 73° 7' E. 

 It has thus been described as visible over an area of above 3° of 

 longitude and 2° of latitude — from Bombay, 18° 53' N., and 

 72° 49' E., to Sholapore and Aurungabad ; though in all likelihood 

 it may have been observed over a much more extensive area than 

 this, from which as yet no observations have reached iis. From the 

 explosions heaid at Aurungabad it is possible that in this neighbour- 

 hood it burst. We have already alluded to the very great interest 

 attached to notices of matters such as these, and our anxiety on all 

 occasions to be furnished with them. With a few more notices such 

 as those given below, we should very probably obtain the means of 

 guessing very nearly at the distance and velocity, and course pursued 

 by fire-balls. As we have now had abundance of time to have heard 

 from the most remote of our outstations, and our friends have been 

 obliging enough to respond so extensively as they have done to our 

 call for information, we infer that the meteor was not visible much 



