May 26, 1887] 



NATURE 



93 



A REMARKABLE METEOR. 



|N March 17 last, about 4.15 p.m., the track of a brilliant 

 meteor in the southern heavens, at an altitude of 30°, was 



served by Mr. R. Brough Smyth, of Sandhurst, Victoria, 

 *\ustralia. Writing to us on March 19, Mr. Smyth says : — 



"The line was silver-white and of considerable breadth. 

 i he sun was shining in a clear sky. Owing to the view being 

 intercepted by large gum-trees growing in the grounds around 

 my house, I could see only a portion of the arc described. 

 Subsequently, a little after 5 o'clock p.m., the sky was obscured 

 by a kind of mist or vapour at a great height — in colour between 

 steel-grey and lead-grey, and with tints similar to those of the 

 metal bismuth over the whole. All objects looked green or green- 

 ish in the strange light. The meteor was observed at Salisbury in 

 South Australia, at Coleraine in the extreme west of Victoria, 

 and at various places eastward — say over a distance of 400 

 miles. It travelled apparently from east to west, and as far as 

 known was visible in the southern part of Australia only. In 

 some places it presented the appearance of a blood-red ball, 

 and at Beaufort the ball is said to have exploded with a loud 

 report, sending up a streak of fire, accompanied with the 

 hissing of escaping steam, as from an engine. It left a cloud of 

 greyish smoke. This smoke-like cloud was observed in other 

 places. At Warrnambool on the west coast, and at Terang, 

 twenty-five miles north-eastward, shocks of what were supposed 

 to be earthquakes were felt at the time of the disappearance of the 

 meteor. Cattle and horses galloped about in alarm, houses 

 were shaken, windows rattled, and the wild fowl in the lakes 

 were disturbed, and took wing. I inclose cuttings from the 

 Argus containing accounts of this phenomenon." 



The "cuttings" inclosed by Mr. Smyth are a series of tele- 

 grams, describing the phenomenon as seen in various parts of 

 Australia. At Coleraine, " a brilliant ball of fire shot from the 

 zenith in a clear sky to 30'' above the horizon, and then disap- 

 peared as it exploded, leaving a large cloud of white smoke, which 

 was visible for half an hour. Exactly six minutes subsequently, 

 two distinct shocks like cannon reports were heard, with a percept- 

 ible tremor of the atmosphere. The phenomenon was witnessed 

 by 500 persons." At iNIerino, "a most unusual phenomenon 

 appeared in the eastern sky. A streak like smoke from a vol- 

 cano appeared. Immediately after the appearance, a report like 

 distant thunder was heard from the same direction. It was 

 thought that an aerolite of immense size had fallen between 

 Merino and Hamilton." At Stawell the "meteor appeared to 

 burst just beyond the town in a cloud 'of smoke, which was 

 immediately followed by a loud crash like thunder." From 

 Terang it is reported that at Lake Keilambete "the black swans 

 were noticed to rise suddenly off the lake. A rumbling noise 

 appeared to pass under, causing the cattle grazing on the banks 

 of the lake to scamper away, and on gaining some distance 

 they were seen to look back. The noise was heard in other 

 places, and seemed to pass to the south-west." At Port- 

 land, " three distinct reverberations like the booming of artil- 

 lery were heard about 4 p.m." The people at Warrnambool, 

 hearing, shortly after 4 o'clock, loud detonations like a volley 

 of musketry, with subsequent dropping shots, rushed out of 

 their houses ; and "the cattle were paralyzed with fear at the 

 sounds." The disappearance of the meteor over Beaufort, 

 where it is said to have exploded, "was followed by earth 

 tremors and a rumbling sound as of the firing of heavy artillery. 

 The vibrations lasted for ten seconds. Several houses were 

 shaken severely. No substance appears to have fallen to the 

 earth. " 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 

 The contents of vol. Iv. part 2, No. 4, of the Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal, are varied. They commence by a 

 memoir on the land shells of Perak, by Dr. O. F. v, Mollen- 

 dorff, in which 58 species (many new) are enumerated or de- 

 scribed. Then follows an account of solar thermometric ob- 

 servations at Allahabad, by S. A. Hill, Meteorological Reporter 

 to the Government of the North- West Provinces. The third 

 memoir is an historico-geographical study on probable changes 

 in the Punjab and its rivers, by R. D. Oldham, of the Indian 

 Geological Survey, a paper on which much research has 

 been expended, tending to prove that a second large river, 

 independent of the Indus, once existed in the Punjab, and 

 that the geological changes which converted a once fertile district 



into a desert probably date so recently as the early centuries of 

 the Christian era. The next is a very important entomological 

 investigation of the butterflies of Cachar, by Prof. Wood-Mason 

 and Mr. L. De Niceville, enumerating no less than 247 species 

 obtained between the end of March and the beginning of 

 October. A remarkable feature is the large number of 

 Hesperiid(e, of which 53 distinct species were obtained. There 

 arc valuable notes on seasonal and local variation, and a con- 

 siderable number of new species are described, and mostly 

 figured on four plates, one of which is a chromo-lithograph 

 executed in London, the others "autotype," and apparently very 

 successful examples of what may be produced by the process as 

 applied to natural history subjects. Dr. King follows with a 

 short paper on some new species of Ficus from New Guinea, in 

 which the author largely quotes from and anticipates a monograph 

 on Indo-Malayan and Chinese figs prepared for the Linnean 

 Society ; the remarks are worthy of very careful study, and open 

 up much new light on the somewhat obscure subject known as 

 "caprification." The concluding paper is a very short one by 

 Mr. J. S. Baly on a new species of Hispa destructive to the 

 " dahn " crops in Chittagong. On the whole this part is one of 

 the most valuable that have been issued by this long-established 

 Society. 



Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 2nd 

 series, vol. i., part 4, February 22, 1887 (Sydney), contains : — 

 Zoology: George Masters, catalogue of the described Coleo- 

 ptera of Australia, part 6. — E. Meyrick, descriptions of new 

 Lepidoptera. A large number of new species and several new 

 genera are described ; a new species of Thalpochares is given 

 the name of Coccophaga, from the singular habits of the larva, 

 which feeds solely on a Coccus infesting a Macro zamia. — E. P. 

 Ramsay, notes on the eggs of various Australian birds ; list of 

 Western Australian birds collected at Derby ; on the nest of 

 Pycnoptilus floccosus (plate xx. ) ; on a new species of Hapalotis 

 {H. bozueri) (plate xviii.). — E. P. Ramsay and J. Douglas-Ogilby, 

 on a new species of Apogon (A. roseigaster). — William Mac- 

 leay, on a new species of Hoplocephalus {H. collar is). — C. W. 

 De Vis, on new or rare vertebrates from the Herbert River ; 

 describes a new Pseudochirus {P. mongan), a new Dromicia 

 {D. frontalis), and records the occurrence of some rare species. 

 — A. J. North, notes on the bower birds, and some references to 

 authentic descriptions of Australian birds' eggs. — Botany : E. 

 Haviland, flowering seasons of Australian plants. — J. Stirling, 

 on the Rutacese of the Australian Alps. — Baron von Mueller, 

 on some hitherto undescribed plants of New South Wales. 

 Grevillea renwickiana is described as quite procumbent, with 

 elongated branches, being in this respect like G. laurifolia and 

 G. repens, but differing from both in the larger and much less 

 numerous flowers ; also new species of Melaleuca, Bossisea, and 

 Pultenaea. — Palceontological : F. Ratte, notes on Australian 

 fossils. — W. J. Stephens, on some new Labyrinthodonts 

 (plates xiv. and xxii.). — J. Mitchell, on the geology of Bowning, 

 N.S.W. 



Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie, vol. Iv. Part 2, 

 April 13, 1887, contains : — Dr. O. Schultze, researches on the 

 ripening and the fertilization of the amphibian ova, part I 

 (plates xi. to xiii.). — Dr. Wilhelm Roux, on a fungus living 

 parasitically in bones {Mycelites ossifragus) (plate xiv.). The 

 author gives an account of the filaments of this fungus occurring 

 in the bones of a large number of extinct forms of mammals, 

 reptiles, and fishes. — Dr. Otto Zacharias, contributions to the 

 pelagic and littoral fauna of the German Ocean. In this paper 

 are described a large number of Entomostraca, Rotatoria, 

 Hydrachnida, and Turbellaria, some new. In an appendix, S. A. 

 Poppe describes a new species of Temorella from liolstein and 

 Mecklenburg (plate xv. ). — Dr. H. Strahl, on the walls of the 

 yolk-sac and on the parablast in lizards (plate xvi.). — Dr. Joseph 

 Heinrich List, on the glandular structures in the foot of Tethys 

 Hmbriata, L. (plate xvii. ). These glands are found both on the 

 upper and under side of the feet, and are of four different sorts ; 

 while some are slime organs, others may be phosphorescent 

 organs. — Dr. Eugen Korschelt, on some interesting phenomena 

 in the formation of the eggs of insects (plates xviii., xix.). 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, April 28. — "On the Homologies and Suc- 

 cession of the Teeth in the Dasyuridas, with an Attempt to 



