1864. | Hats’s Great Meteor of 1865. 191 
The Meteor appears to have been visible over a hexagonal area, 
the angles of which are formed by the following places :—Manchester, 
Brighton, Tréves, Erbach, Hanover, and the North-coast of the kingdom 
of Hanover. This space encloses more than 100,000 English square 
miles. The most distant opposite angles in the direction N.W. and 
S.E. are Manchester and Erbach, 553 miles apart; and from N.E. to 
S.W. Bremen and Brighton, 401 miles distant. 
About the time of the appearance and its duration there is little 
room for difference of opinion. The author calculates the mean time 
for Minster at 7h. 6m., and the duration is variously stated to have 
been from 3 to 6 seconds. 
The form and size of the fire-ball are naturally open to wider 
differences of opinion among the observers, but in this instance the 
differences are capable of reconciliation. One observer compared the 
head of the Meteor to the head of a fish, and remarked that it pro- 
gressed with the movement of a swimming fish. Another compared 
it to a club, the length of which was three times that of the breadth. 
The majority observed that it was pear-shaped, egg-shaped, or fig- 
shaped ; hence the author concludes that it was really ellipsoidal. 
But as most on the Belgian side described it as a “ fiery cannon ball,” 
the author infers that the longer axis was directed towards that 
side. 
The apparent size was mostly compared with some terrestrial 
object. It was said to have been the size of a man’s head, a child’s 
head, a hen’s egg, or a ball 4, 5, or 6 inches in diameter. Many 
said it was the size of the moon, others that its diameter was 4, 4, or 
4 that of the moon. One observer describes it as four times the size 
of the evening star, and another says that at its first appearance it was 
no larger than ordinary star dust (Sternschuppe). 
The description of the colour, also, offers some differences. 
Some say it was of dazzling whiteness, others, a greenish blue, while 
another remarks that the light resembled that of the Electric spark.* 
The colour, however, appears to have been changed by intervening 
media, so that at some stations it was said to be red, deep yellow, dark 
red, or violet. The author believes that the real colour of the Meteor 
was red, inasmuch as it appeared of that colour when at a great height, 
and in bright moonlight. 
The most extraordinary brightness was remarked everywhere ; it 
seemed like the sudden appearance of a full moon in the heavens. Near 
Boppard, an observer on a mountain saw for a moment the valley of the 
Rhine lighted up as by avery bright full moon. At one place, a clergy- 
man could distinguish the letters in a newspaper lying on his table, 
and at Kupen a man could see to read in the street. The shadows of 
objects were thrown remarkably sharply and well defined ; and the 
confused dance of the shadows of houses and trees, projected as 
* The Reviewer, who was passing along Regent Street, London, on the evening 
in question, was much startled by the sudden appearance of an extraordinary light, 
which, to him, appeared exactly like the light of the electric spark. On looking to 
the sky, he saw nothing but a brilliant line of light which appeared to lie nearly 
East and West, and seemed three or four yards long. 
