394 Falling Star. — Length of the Pendulum under the Equator. 



FALLING STAR SEEN AT MID-DAY. 



« On the 13th of August 1823, at a quarter past eleven in 

 the forenoon, as I was employed in measuring the zenith dis- 

 tances of the pole-star to determine the latitude, a luminous 

 body passed over the field of the universal instrument teles- 

 cope, the light of which was somewhat greater than that of 

 the pole-star. Its apparent motion was from below upwai'ds ; 

 but as the telescope shows images in an inverted position, its 

 real motion, like that of every falling body, was from above 

 downwards. ♦ 



It passed over the telescope in the space of a second, or a 

 second and a half, and its motion was neither perfectly equal 

 nor rectilinear, but resembled very much the unequal and 

 somewhat serpentine motion of an ascending rocket, trom the 

 unequal burning of the charge, and the irregular re-action ot 

 the stream of air issuing from it on the atmospheric air. It 

 was thus evident that this meteor moved in our atmosphere, 

 but it must have been at a considerable height, since its angular 

 motion was so slow. This is perhaps the only instance in 

 which a shooting-star has been seen at mid-day in clear sun- 

 shine." — Hansteen. \_Edin. Phil. Journ.^ 



LENGTH OF THE PENDULUM UNDER THE EQUATOR. 



The expedition to the equator (for the purpose of de- 

 termining this important problem) was set on foot by Mr. 

 Goldingham, under the encouragement of Sir Thomas Munro 

 and Sir Stamford Raffles, in 1821. In 1822 the party under 

 Capt. Crisp arrived at Bencoolen; and after some time occu- 

 pied in searching for an eligible spot, stationed themselves on 

 a small island named Gaunsah Lout, in January 1823. The 

 latitude of the island was 0° 1' 48"78. The observations and 

 the experiments were continued till the end of March, and 

 were very numerous and laborious. The details form the 

 bulk of the report, a folio of 268 pages, including, however, 

 a series of observations to determine the geographical position 

 of a number of places in the vicinity ; — the result, affecting the 

 main object of the expedition, giving the length of the pen- 

 dulum at Gaunsah Lout, was inches 39*02125994. — Asiatic 

 Journ. 



INTERESTING VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. 



On Thursday his majesty's ship Blossom, Capt. F. W. 

 Beechey, sailed from Portsmouth upon her interesting voyage 

 of discovery and survey in the Pacific, previously touching at 

 Rio Janeii'o, to land dispatches for his excellency Sir Charles 

 Stuart. After visiting Pitcairn Island, Otaheite, Easter and 



Friendly 



