Sept. 1, 1870] 
NATURE 
357 
He is also the author of two works in German, “ The 
Basin of Cabul ” (Vienna, 1851), and “ Cashmere and the 
Empire of the Sikhs” (Stuttgardt, 1840). 
For many years he continued to take a yery active 
part in all the scientific progress of his native country 
and of Italy. At the time of his death, in his seventy- 
fifth year, he was Austrian Minister at Brussels. 
THE METEOR OF AUGUST 15 
E have received descriptions from several corre- 
spondents of the remarkable meteor seen on the 
evening of August 15 over the north of England and 
Ireland and south of Scotland, to which we referred in 
our last number. 
A correspondent from Portrush sends the following 
Gescription and sketch :—“ At 8.50, on August 15, when 
stars of first magnitude were only faintly visible, a shgot- 
ing star was seen in the north-west. I have shown its 
position in the heavens in the accompanying sketch. It 
was observed to leave behind it a white thin cloud which 
NORTH POLE STAR 3 
CREAT BEAR 
SHOOTING STAR 
AFTERWARDS WHITE CLOUD 
Shootung star, ) P.M., August 15.—N.N.W. 25 deg. avove tue horizon 
left behind it a s k of white cloud, which was clearly visible for ten 
minutes, drifting with the wind 
drifted a little to the west, and altered its shape from a 
straight line to acrescent. It was evidently illuminated 
by the light of the setting sun, and disappeared gradually 
in ten or fifteen minutes. Was the white thin streak of 
cloud, vapour, or dust? I observe by the newspaper that 
this cloud was seen in the neighbourhood of Belfast some 
forty miles distant, from which I infer that the phe- 
nomenon took place at a considerable altitude.” 
At Dunbar it is described by an observer in the fol- 
lowing language :—‘“* A remarkable atmospheric pheno- 
menon was witnesséd at Dunbar on Monday night. The 
phenomenon was first seen about a quarter before nine 
o’olock, and at that time it was more than half-way up the 
northern horizon. When first observed it had the appear- 
ance of a ball eight or ten inches in diameter, of a bright 
sparkling white colour tinged with blue, hanging suspended 
inmid-air. The colour, indeed, throughout was much the 
Same as that of a star of the first magnitude, From the 
head or ball there issued a tail of the same bright colour, 
apparently three or four yards in length, and pointing in 
a north-easterly direction. By-and-by, however, a second 
tail seemed to branch off from the middle of the first one, 
at an angle of forty-five degrees, thus giving to the tail of 
the figure a cleft or forked appearance. This second tail 
seemed to come and go, being occasionally detached for a 
few seconds, sometimes indeed being lost sight of alto- 
gether, then suddenly coming into view, and appearing to 
unite again. The phenomenon lasted with little variation 
for fully twenty minutes, and then proceeded very slowly 
in asouth-westerly direction.” 
At Kirkbank, near Burntisland, it presented the fol- 
lowing appearance :—“ A brilliant shooting-star appeared 
in the north-west on a bright evening sky, and darted out 
of sight northwards. Its path was precisely that of a 
body obliquely reflected from an air-cushion, It left a 
trail like a nebulous haze. At the point of reflection a 
vivid spot remained, and fainter trails before and behind ; 
corresponding to head or ball and tails noticed at Dunbar. 
The nucleus drifted towards south-west, and the branches 
gradually folded together behind, all disappearing as a 
faint Streak, Wufratiou eslitndatcu luuy Lei iuimules, ter- 
minating about 9.5 P.M., as Dunbar notice has it.” The 
successive aspects were sketched by the writer and 
annexed. 
And at Arran the appearance presented appears to 
have been very similar :—*On Monday night about 
half-past nine o’clock, there was a peculiar manifesta- 
tion of what appeared to be electrical agency in the 
sky, at Whiting Bay. At that hour a bright light was 
seen to flash out from the north-west, near the horizon. 
It suddenly spread upwards in the form of a long ribbon, 
the upper half of which afterwards doubled down, when 
the whole assumed a horse-shoe form, and then gradually 
faded away. The sky was at the time perfectly clear, 
and a number of stars were visible, but the brightness of 
the meteoric appearance completely outshone them.” 
We should be glad to receive further descriptions of 
this remarkable meteor from some of our astronomical 
correspondents. 
