METEORS. 



420 



spidery threads and mere moving points of light, to 

 great meteors, which exceeded the apparent diameter 

 of Jupiter, and burst in splendors of orange and 

 crimson fire. Two of the larger class, after apparent 

 combustion, remained for fifteen minutes visible as 

 small nebulous or cometary stars of the second or 

 third magnitude, with distinct nuclei in misty rings. 

 One of these was near the outer of the index stars or 

 pointers in Ursa Major, and one far to the southward, 

 near or in Argo. But the most remarkable exhibi- 

 tion of all was that of a large "fire-ball," which fell 

 rather slowly from near Aldebaran, and burst in 

 Aries. For many minutes a portion of its tail (about 

 five degrees in length) remained printed on the sky, 

 forked in form like the conventional representation 

 of a thunder-bolt the lightning fixed where it had 

 finished. This apparition finally changed, and spread 

 horizontally into a small white cloud or vapor-wreath 

 (about four degrees by two) of nebulous phosphores- 

 cent lustre, which drifted slowly to the northward, 

 and remained visible and luminous for at least fifty 

 minutes. Its apparent substance differed in no re- 

 spect from that of the tail of a comet. 



Very respectfullv, your obedient servant, 



WM. GIBSON, Commander, U. S. N. 



The London Daily News gives the following 

 summary of observations of the November 

 meteors at different points on the Continent 

 of Europe, where the shower was seen to the 

 best advantage : 



Although in England we had no noteworthy dis- 

 play of the November meteors, yet gradually news is 

 coming in from various places which suffices to indi- 

 cate that the earth, passed in reality through a very 

 widely-extended and tolerably dense portion of the 

 meteor-stream this year. The display in 1866 lasted 

 but a few hours : that in 1867 was even briefer ; 

 while, in 1868, falling stars were seen on two nights 

 in succession (in America), a fact which indicates that 

 the earth was upward of twenty-four hours in pass- 

 ing through, the meteoric stream. But now observe 

 what Lieutenant Tupman reports from Port Said, in 

 Egypt. As early as November eight small meteors 

 were noticed, whose motion, directed from the well- 

 known "radiant" in Leo, showed that they be- 

 longed to the true November meteor-stream. Again, 

 on the morning of the 10th, between one and four, 

 meteors were observed to radiate from the constella- 

 tion Leo at the rate of eight per hour. On the fol- 

 lowing morning they were still falling, but in fewer 

 numbers ; while, on the 12th, no stars were seen to 

 travel from Leo, though many shooting-stars not be- 

 longing to the November system were observed. 



Here, then, we find that there had been a vast out- 

 lying branch of the November meteor system, so per- 

 fectly distinct from the main stream as to leave a com- 



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Leo could bear no other interpretation. On the 12th, 

 however, there was a lull, and even on the morning 

 of the 13th very few stars were seen to radiate from 

 the sickle in Leo. The morning of the 14th was that 

 on which the true display was expected; and the 

 event corresponded to the anticipations which had 

 been formed by astronomers. The morning was not 

 very clear half a gale of wind was blowing from the 

 northward, and heavy clouds, continually passing, 

 rarely left a third of the sky visible. Nevertheless a 

 brilliant display was seen, of short duration, corre- 

 sponding in this latter particular more with the shower 

 of 1867 than any other recent showers. From half- 

 past twelve to a quarter past one A. jr., a large portion 

 of the sky being clear overhead at times, only two 

 small meteors were seen, neither of which radiated 

 from Leo. 



At half-past two the watch was resumed, and be- 

 tween large openings in the clouds the shower was 



seen at its height. Most brilliant meteors, many of 

 which illuminated the view around like flashes of 

 lightning, often ^f a bright-green color, shot with as- 

 tonishing rapidity at the rate of one or two every 

 minute. This continued at about the same rate until 

 four o'clock, when there was a sudden diminution in 

 the numbers, and before five o'clock all was over. 



The news received from Father Secchi, at Rome, 

 shows that the particular part of the November 

 meteor system which gave the brilliant display wit- 

 nessed by Lieutenant Tupman was the same which 

 the Roman observer watched. He counted no fewer 

 than 183 meteors in half an hour. 



# The News adds : 



Undoubtedly the most remarkable result of these 

 observations is the confirmation they afford of the 

 view recently brought forward by Mr. Alexander 

 Herschel, that the November meteor-stream is not 

 single. This view points to the existence of no fewer 

 than three distinct branches, of which the central one 

 is the largest. But, at the part of the system crossed 

 this year by the earth, the branches must be very 

 much, farther apart than at the portions crossed in 

 the years 1866-' 68. Lieutenant Tupman, in fact, only 

 recognized two branches, of which the second was 

 obviously the bright or central one, and, as his letter 

 is dated November 15th, it follows that, if the third 

 outlying stream is as far separated from the middle 

 one as the first has been shown to be, the earth had 

 not yet reached it when the last observations were 

 made. But, taking only the results we have to hand, 

 and noticing that the meteors belonging to the first 

 stream were seen on four successive days, we have 

 this astounding result, that the branch stream in 

 question was no less than 1,700,000 miles deep (meas- 

 ured square to the direction in which it lies). Then 

 came a gap which the earth took more than a day in 

 passing corresponding to a distance of some 500,000 

 miles ; and then the earth plunged through the more 

 compact central stream, whose thickness would seem 

 to have been about 70,000 miles only. 



These figures are surprising enough ; but when we 

 consider the enormous extension of the meteor-stream 

 we are even more astonished. It has now been ren- 

 dered all but certain that each of two great branches 

 at least extends without break or interruption from 

 the portion crossed by the earth in November, 1866, 

 to the part crossed this year ; and, knowing what we 

 do of the path followed by the meteors, we are ab- 

 solutely certain that the part traversed in 1866 is now 

 about a thousand millions of miles away from us 

 is, in fact, passing not far from the orbit of distant 

 Saturn. Along the whole of that enormous distance 

 these two meteor-streams extend, with a depth vary- 

 ing from 40^000 or 50,000 miles to the enormous 

 depths mentioned above, and with a breadth which, 

 though unmeasured, may be safely assumed to exceed 

 the depth tenfold at least. 



In the American Journal of Science, for 

 May, Dr. J. Lawrence Smith, of Louisville, 

 Ky., gives an account of masses of meteoric 

 iron lately discovered in Cohahuila, Mexico, 

 near the Texas border. At different times very 

 large specimens of this iron have been found in 

 that region one, described in 1854 as weigh- 

 ing a ton, and another at an earlier date, of a 

 cylindrical form, a yard long, and ten inches 

 in diameter. The irons referred to in the an- 

 nexed narrative were discovered "by Dr. H. 

 B. Batcher, who communicated the facts in 

 letters to his father, which were afterward 

 placed at the disposal of Mr. Smith, who made 

 an analysis of a fragment of one of the masses. 

 The Santa Eosa iron, to which the author 

 refers (and of which he gave a description in 



