126 



NATURE 



{Dec. 7, 1876 



hemispheres, expressed surprise at the phenomenon, and stated 

 that he did not recollect to have remarked anything of the kind. 

 In 1852 Schmidt published the results of his observations of 

 telescopic meteors between 1844-51, " Resultate aus zehniahrigen 

 Beobachtungen Uber Stemschnuppen," p. 165 ; most of those 

 seen by him were as bright as stars of between the eighth and 

 tenth magnitude', and generally moved very slowly. Schmidt 

 during these observations was for the most part using a " comet- 

 seeker," the same with which he formed the chart for Hour V. 

 of R. A. ia the Berlin series ; the writer was invariably observing 

 with the comet-eyepiece on a 7-inch refractor giving a power of 

 about 45. 



Perhaps some of the astronomical readers of Nature may^be 

 able to put upon record the dates of other appearances of tele- 

 scopic meteors in some numbers and with a general uniformity of 

 direction. 



Lalande appears to make his re''erence to Schroter's observa- 

 tion of telescopic meteors with the intention of illustrating ^the 

 acuteness of vision of the Lilienthal astronomer. Indeed, in the 

 preceding sentence he makes the following extraordinary state- 

 ment with regard to Schroter : — " II a une vue privilegiee pour 

 I'astronomie ; il voit Mercure en plein jour a la vue simple." 



The Comet of the Bayeux Tapestry. — There can now 

 remain very little doubt that the grand comet which_astonished 

 Europe in the year of the Norman Conquest leading to a multi- 

 tude of records in the annals of the time, and forming, with its 

 astonished beholders, the subject of embroidery on the celebrated 

 Bayeux tapestry, was the famous body which now bears univer- 

 sally the name of our countryman Ilalley. Allowing for the 

 peculiar character of Chinese observations of comets, the account 

 they have left us of its track amongst the stars from the begin- 

 ning of April to the end of the first week in June, 1066, is well 

 represented by elements not differing more from the actual ele- 

 ments of llalley's comet than accumulated effectof perturbation in 

 eight centuries may well explain. If it is assumed that Halley's 

 comtt arrived at its least distance from the sun on March 18, its 

 position when discovered by the Chinese in the morning sky on 

 April 2, would be as they record in their sidereal division " Shib," 

 two degrees south of the equator, and distant from the earth 

 rather less than eight-tenths of the earth's mean distance from the 

 sun. Between this date and June 8, or sixty-seven days after 

 discovery, which is the duration of visibility assigned, the comet 

 would make a grand sweep across the sky from the constellation 

 Pegasus into Sextans between Leo and Hydra, or as the Chinese 

 express it, *' through fourteen sidereal divisions from Shih to 

 Chang. " The imposing aspect of the comet described in Euro- 

 pean chronicles and confirmed by the Chinese Annals, wherein 

 it is compared in brilliancy to Venus, and by exaggeration, no 

 doubt, even to the moon, is fully explained by the cicumstances 

 under which Halley's comet must have been observed if in peri- 

 helion on March 18. When last seen in China it had receded to 

 1 1 times the earth's distance from the sun. 



METEOROLOGICAL NOTES 



Recent Storms. — We have already' referred to the great 

 cyclone of October 31, which will long be remembered'as one of 

 the most appalling catastrophes that has occurred in the history 

 of the human race. Tlie storm- wave advanced over Chittagong 

 from south to north, but most of the damage was done along the 

 shores of the Meghna by a storm-wave which [^swept seawards 

 from north to south. The details of this and the other features 

 of this great cyclone will be looked forward to with intense 

 interest. — We have also given some account of the storm of wind 

 of almost unexampled violence which broke over Sydney at 

 9.50 P.M. of Sunday, September 10, and continued with un- 

 abated fury during the whole of Monday. Since as there are 



good reasons for the belief that the maximum velocity or force 

 of the wind in great storms is frequently understated, it is desir- 

 able that the fullest details of the observations from which the 

 velocity of the wind at the rate of 153 miles an hour has been 

 deduced be published in the monthly publication of the Obser- 

 vatory. — A hurricane of great severity and followed by most 

 disastrous results swept over Central America on October 3 

 and 4. The town of Managua, on the south side of the lake of 

 the same name, and west of Lake Nicaragua, was inundated on 

 the 4th, and 400 houses were blown down by the hurricane. 

 As the flood rose the inhabitants had to betake themselves to the 

 tops of the houses, and many were drowned by the houses fall- 

 ing. The hurricane then passed eastward over Lake Nicaragua 

 and descended over Blewfield, situated on the Mosquito Gulf, 

 and overturned uwards of 300 houses in that town. It was in 

 all probability the same cyclone which was encountered at the 

 same date by the Panama Transit and Pacific Mail Steamer 

 Costa Rica about 300 miles to the south-east, near Parita, on the 

 Gulf of Panama, where it was accompanied with a frightful sea- 

 running wind shifting all round the compass and blowing with 

 such a force that the Cosia Rica had its hurricane deck blown 

 away and the head of the mainmast, maintopmast, and gaff 

 carried off. Later, or from October 17 to 21, Capt. Bremner, 

 of the steamship Chilian, reports the severest hurricane he ever 

 experienced at^.Cayman's Island, to the west of Jamaica, wheie 

 1 70 houses were destroyed and much damage done to fruit trees 

 and other crops. — The list of heavy storms and hurricanes might 

 be increased by including the severe storms reported as having 

 recently occurred in Behring's Strait, wrecking a dozen of 

 whalers, the great gale near Chefoo, in which H.M.S, Lapwing 

 was lost, the terrible storms in Madeira and Portugal, com- 

 mencing on November 11, and the storms of the British 

 Islands a fortnight since, as well as during the present week, 

 with their attendant floods, which in certain districts attained 

 to a height and a destructiveness unknown for many years. 

 The last two months have thus been noteworthy for the 

 violence of the storms of wind which have been let loose, as 

 it were, over all quarters of the globe, thus offering in their 

 salient weather characteristics a marked contrast to the charac- 

 teristics of the weather little more than a year ago, when we 

 were called to record disastrous inundations occurring in almost 

 all parts of the globe. During the past two months the weather 

 has not only been characterised by the extreme violence of the 

 wind but also by equally unprecedented and violent alternations 

 of abnormally warm and cold, and dry and wet tracks of weather 

 — the connection between which is no doubt a more deeply 

 rooted one than that of mere coincidence. 



Meteorological Observatory on Monte Cavo. — We 

 are interested to learn, from a letter which appears in Compies 

 Rendus, that P. Secchi has succeeded in establishing a meteoro- 

 logical observatory on the summit of Monte Cavo. This is the 

 highest of the volcanic group in Laiium. Its summit rises 

 953 metres above the sea-level and about 900 metres above the 

 Roman Campagna. The meteorological instruments are placed 

 in the convent, and the monks are charged to make observations. 

 These instruments are a Fortin barometer, a psychrometric ther- 

 mometer, a maximum and minimum thermometrograph, a pluvio- 

 meter, and a weather vane. An anemometrograph will soon be 

 added. The isolation of the mountain, which rises about 200 

 metres above the surrounding volcanic cones, renders it peculiarly 

 well suitedfor researches in meteorology. In view of the importance 

 of the institution the Government has agreed to defiay the expense 

 of installation. The observations are only begun two months ; 

 they show, among other things, that the temperature of Monte 

 Cavo is often higher than that of Rome, and that the variations 

 of temperature are less than on the plain. There is another 

 observatory at the base of the cone, at Grotta-Ferrata, in a 

 monastery there also ; its elevation is about 330 metres, and it 



