A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 37 



north to south, but visible from the side. Similarly a meteor appearing at 

 A might move obliquely downwards to F, disappearing at 15° in the south- 

 east, and be represented by a line joining those two points. 



No. 6. Extracts from a letter from Professor Cocchi, at Florence, to 

 Mr. Greg. 



"At 9 o'clock P.M., 25th July, 1847, when I was riding from Prato to 

 Florence with a relation of mine and a man-servant, an enormous igneous 

 body appeared over our heads, rushing towards the north. Our horses were 

 much terrified, and we saw evei'ything around us as if it were daylight. We 

 heard no detonations after the disappearance of the meteor, which was many 

 times larger than the moon, but a kind of hissing sound, not unlike the flying 

 of some bird. I think it must have passed very near us ; at least, we expe- 

 rienced a sense of heat at the time, and when its light was extinguished we 

 could for some seconds distinguish in the air a phosphorescent light. 



"On the 4th or 5th of October, 1859, I was walking with my two 

 brothers near our country seat of Tarrarossa, at about 8 p.m., when suddenly 

 our attention was attracted by a splendid fire-ball flying rapidly in a S.W. 

 direction ; the apparition lasted some seconds, when it disappeared beneath the 

 horizon. I heard no detonation, but my brothers stated they heard it in spite 

 of the great distance ; if so, the fragments of this meteoric body fell down 

 into the sea, not manv miles from Tarrarossa. 



" My friend Professor Compani, of Siena, wrote to me some time ago about 

 a similar event which terrified and dismayed Siena, and made many of its 

 citizens leave their shaking houses in a great hurry. He says, ' In December 

 last (1860), about the 16th day of the month, an enormous bolide traversed 

 the sky over Siena, which a few minutes afterwards made a terrible noise in 

 its progress ; it left in its track many sparks. Judging by the ear, the explo- 

 sion must have taken place between Asciano and Buonconvento ; some indeed 

 aver having seen fall, in some places, sparks of fire ; nothing, however, was 

 found." 



" Florence, August 8th, 1861." 



No. 7. — Extract from Dr. Buchner's Work on Fire Meteors. 



" It has been contended by many, in opposition to Chladni's (1820) opinion, 

 that large fire-balls are totally different from shooting-stars, that they are 

 quite a different class of bodies. Davy, L. Smith, and Shepard, who are the 

 advocates of this opinion, among other things insist upon this point, that 

 if both are analogous bodies there would also, at the time of the periods 

 for shooting-stars, especially in the months of August and November, neces- 

 sarily fall more aerolites. They contend that no instance of any observation 

 made could be stated, that whenever an aerolite has been seen, it equally made 

 its appearance by itself alone, and not in connection with other meteors. 



" Even though the rich November streams of 1779, 1830, and other years 

 have not actually been shown to have been abundant as regards meteorites, 

 yet the recent modern comparisons made are such as may cause us to fairly 

 admit the homogeneous nature of the two phenomena. Baumhauer compared 

 the fire-meteors for the single days in the year, as also has Rudolph Wolf at 

 Zurich. Accordingly, leaving out the days on which no tire-meteors or a few 

 only were observed, we have the following days as having been particularly 

 plentiful as regards large fire-balls and falls of meteor-stones. 



