VOL. LXX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTION'S. 630 



see the Dairi, or ecclesiastical emperor. On the 11th they procured leave to 

 walk about the town, and visit the temples and principal buildings. In the even- 

 ing they set out for Osacca, which town they were also permitted to view, which 

 they did on the 13th. They saw temples, theatres, and many curious buildings; 

 but, above all, the manufactory of copper, which is melted here, and no where 

 else in the empire. On the 14th they had an audience of the governors of this 

 town ; after which they resumed their journey to Fiogo, where they again em- 

 barked on the 18th, and proceeded by sea to Simonoseki, whence they arrived on 

 the 23d at Cocota, and thence were carried in norimons to Nagasacci, and arrived 

 at their little island Dezima on the 30th of June, after an absence of 1 18 days. 



X. Of an Extraordinary Appearance in a Mist. By Mr. IFilliam Cockin, of 



Lancaster, p. 157. 

 January 13, 17^8, between 9 and 10 in the morning, being on an eminence 

 that overlooked some low meadow ground, Mr. C. observed, in a direction oppo- 

 site to that of the sun, which shone very bright, and in a mist which covered the 

 said inclosures, an unusual meteor, which, without attempting to name it, he 

 describes by help of fig. 15, pi. 6, At about the distance of half a mile, and 

 incurvated towards each other, like the lower ends of the common rainbow, there 

 appeared in the mist 2 places of a peculiar brightness as represented at aa. They 

 seemed, as is common, to rest on the ground, were continued as high as the 

 mist, and in breadth near half as much more as that of the iris. In the middle, 

 between these 2 places, on the same horizontal line, was a coloured appearance 

 like deb, a, bed, whose base could not at most subtend an angle of above 1 or 

 12 degrees, and whose interior parts were thus variegated. The centre a was 

 dark and irregularly terminated, as if made by the shadow of some object not larger 

 than an ordinary sheaf of corn. Next this centre was a curved space bb, of a 

 yellowish flame-colour. To this succeeded another curved space of nearly the 

 same dark cast as the centre, seemingly tinged with a faint hue of green, and 

 very evenly bounded on each side, as at cc. After these came on the terminating 

 ring, which was coloured very much in the manner of the common rainbow, 

 except that the tints were not quite so vivid (as if owing to the effect of a yel- 

 lowish tinge, which seemingly entered into the composition of all the colours) 

 nor their boundaries so well defined. The centre of the image appeared to be 

 exactly in the line of aspect, as it is called, or one conceived to be drawn from 

 the sun through the eye of the spectator; and it may be observed from the 

 figure, that these curve spaces were not segments of perfect circles, but formed 

 like the ends of concentric ellipses, whose transverse axes were perpendicular to 

 the horizon. 



