296 
Bristol Museum. With characteristic energy he at once set 
to work, re-tableting. re-arranging, and naming the geo- 
logical collection, taking care to have gaps in the series 
filled up, and making the museum really serviceable for 
purposes of instruction. Six years later, in the early part 
of 1878, he received the appointment of Assistant Curator 
of the Woodwardian Museum, Cambridge. He soon 
made his mark there, as was acknowledged in the follow- 
ing year by the bestowal upon him of the honorary M.A. 
degree. His indefatigable industry and wide range of 
acquirements so peculiarly fitted him for this position, 
that his death must for some time to come be an almost 
irreparable loss to the University. 
Looking over his published papers one cannot but be 
struck with his versatility. At one time we find him 
discussing the Rhoetic beds of South Wales, at another 
dealing with that vexed question of Alpine geology—the 
position of Zerebratula diphya. From Devonian fossils 
he passes to the description of new species of Oolitic 
gasteropods, or to the Cretaceous Aporrhaide, or to 
Paleozoic star-fishes. He could enter minutely into the 
stratigraphy of the Isle of Wight Tertiary strata, and 
with not less energy and clearness of insight described 
the microscopic structure of the crystalline rocks of 
Wales. Well versed in the Continental languages, he 
kept himself abreast of the foreign progress of his 
favourite science. Nor were his tastes wholly scientific. 
He delighted in Piers Ploughman and the Niebelungen- 
lied. What he might have done who may guess? That 
with his feebleness of constitution he should have been 
able to accomplish so much, shows how ardent was his 
love of nature and how indomitable his spirit of inquiry. 
His devotion to truth and abhorrence of everything 
savouring of insincerity or sham led him to speak out 
freely and uncompromisingly. But no one could mistake 
the honesty of his purpose. A. G. 
REMARKS ON AND OBSERVATIONS OF THE 
METEORIC AURORAL PHENOMENON OF 
NOVEMBER 17, 1882 
{pee interesting meteoric phenomenon seen in England 
during the aurora of November 17 last, has induced 
me to endeavour to find the true path of that object. 
Though I have spent much time in applying the method 
given by Prof. E. Heis in his “ Periodischen Sternschnup- 
pen,” I have got no farther than the point to which 
Mr. H. D. Taylor has brought us, the observations 
being in no way capable of combinating. In fact, when 
seeking the lines of intersection, formed by the different 
planes of the great circles, wherein the apparent path 
was seen, with the mean horizon (say the plane of 
a common map), these lines have but little tendency to 
converge to the same point. Therefore the method of 
Mr. Taylor seems tome the most convenient. When the 
object has followed a straight line, all the places where it 
was seen passing just before the moon, must lie in a plane 
containing the true path and the moon. This plane 
must cut the plane of the map in a straight line. 
Now the four places where observers saw the meteor 
before the moon’s disc are :—Woodbridge, near Ipswich, 
Lincoln’s Inn Fields (London), Windsor, and Ramsbury, 
near Hungerford, fulfilling, by no means, the above-men- 
tioned condition. Nevertheless the most probable direc- 
tion of this line seems to be that accepted by Mr. Taylor, 
N.E. by E.-S.W. by W. (astronomical), because this is 
the general direction of the lines of section, given by 
the great circles, mentioned above. Here it is to be 
remarked that when the meteor was seen from S.E. 
to S.W. (as in the case at York), but at some height 
(here 10°) above the horizon, the intersections of the 
apparent path with the horizon may lie near E. and W. 
(here, according to the observation of the meteor passing 
6° below the moon, at 12° south of E.). We give here 
NATURE 
| Fan. 25, 1883 
bearings as seen from the different places, taken directly 
from the communications, or deduced indirectly from 
them :— 
Street (3° south of Leeds) S.E.-S.W. 
Clifton (Bristol) od ice E. 18° N.-W. 18°S. 
Greenwich... ... E.N.E.— (?) 
Guildown (p. 149) E.-W. (nearly). 
Bedford) wees S.E.-S.W. 
Clevedon (p. 100) N. 70° E. (?)-S. 70° W. 
Cambridges mye es E.-S.S.W. 
York (H. D. Taylor) E, 12°S.-W. 12°N. 
Woodbridge... ... E. 10° N.-W. 10° S. 
Windsor 5 E.-W. 
Coopers Hill pod Aes Stan ESN 
IRamsbuty cc ay pate cee mere een 
Lincoln’s Inn Fields E.-W. 
Now we can add to these English observations! two 
others made in the Netherlands. 
1. Prof T. A. C. Oudemans gives in the Utrecht News- 
paper (No. 318) the following (translated) description :— 
“At 6h. 23m. (6h. 23m. Greenw. T.) a feather-like 
appearance, resembling in the beginning a brilliant 
comet, formed suddenly in the eastern part of the heavens, 
the end being just before Aldebaran. Within two minutes 
this feather had prolonged itself above Saturn, through 
the Pegasus quadrate, and south of the three Eagle- 
stars, the east or following end shortening, while the 
other or preceding end advanced. . . . When this arch 
had obtained the length of 90° (which lasted but a few 
seconds) a separation was made in the middle of its 
length, where the arch had a breadth of about 3°. This 
separation had a length of about ro° and a breadth of 4°, 
and was pointed at the ends. At 6h. 25m. this arch 
disappeared wholly in the west.” Prof. Oudemans says 
further that the great circle of the apparent path inter- 
sected the equator at 110° and 290° of right ascension. 
This gives me, combined with the position of Aldebaran, 
a direction in the horizon of E. 20° N.-W. 20° S. 
2. Mr. P. Zeeman observed the same phenomenon at 
at Zonnemaire, near Zierikzee (51° 42’ lat. and 57’ W. 
Amsterdam). He wrote me the foilowing on November 
19 and 24 :—‘“‘ About 6h. 20m. (I saw) a magnificent, 
splendid white arch, beginning a little north of east, and 
prolonging itself to south-west, but in the meantime 
shortening at the east end and disappearing in a very short 
time.” Mr. Zeeman declares in his second letter that this 
arch went through Aldebaran, and through a Pegasi. 
This gives me a horizontal bearing of E. 20° N.-W. 20° 
S., as the observations of Prof. Qudemans gives also. 
Thus we find these two Dutch observations (unhappily 
the sky in Groningen had just, at 6h. 1m. Greenw. T., got 
cloudy, the aurora being very splendid before) supplement 
and confirm the greater part of the English observations. 
Only the phenomenon seems to have been of greater 
apparent size, and therefore nearer to the observer. The 
separation by an obscure streak seems not to have been 
visible in England, perhaps from the change of its 
relative position. 
The conclusion to which we come after all, regretting 
earnestly the want of French observations, is that we have 
here probably a meteoric object, moving, according to the 
calculations of Mr. H. D. Taylor (vol. xxvii. p. 140), with 
great velocity through the upper strata of the atmosphere 
and at the same time of auroral character, as the spectrum 
observation of Mr. Rand Capron (vol. xxvii. p. 84), makes 
out beyond any doubt. The separation and the feather- 
like forms, observed at Utrecht, make it probable that it 
was a mass of meteoric dust, passing through our atmo- 
sphere like an accumulation of little shooting stars. In 
this way the phenomenon of November 17 brings a confir- 
mation of my own theory of aurora, proposed by me in 
the “ Appendice alle Mémorie della Societa degli Spettro- 
copisti Italiani,’’ 1878, vol. ii.,and received with sympathy 
1 Will Mr. W. M. Flinders Petrie be so kind as to tell us where we 
can find the Swedish observation mentioned by him, vol. xxvii. p. 140? 
