OBSEKVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS, 31 



at Birmingham, was directed), while this portion of the meteor's flight 

 appears to have entirely escaped observation at Birmingham. Prolonging 

 the meteor's visible flight at Birmingham 7° backwards towards the radiant- 

 point, and approaching the point of first appearance at Bury St. Edmunds 

 about the same distance towards the north pole of the heavens, the agree- 

 ment of the observations in fixing the point of first commencement at a 

 height of about eighty miles over the neighbourhood of Norwich is nearly 

 as exact as the determination of the place of the meteor's disappearance. 

 The length of its visible path was about seventy-five miles, and its radiant- 

 point in Taurus Poniatovii, on the same meridian, was about 40° south of 

 the usual radiant-point (QHJ of the April meteors. Although its apparent 

 course, as observed at Bury St. Edmunds, evidently denoted it as an erratic 

 member of the group, its general resemblance to the other Lyraids observed 

 on the same evening was a remarkable feature in its long and striking course. 

 Adopting Mr. "Wood's suggestion of (provisionally) increasing the duration, 

 as observed at Birmingham, from 1-25 to 2 seconds in the simple proportion 

 of the increased length of the apparent course, prolonged towards the radiant- 

 point, and adopting 2^ seconds (the average between this duration and that 

 recorded at Bury St. Edmunds) as the time of flight, the resulting velocity, 

 relative to the earth, of this single member of the April meteoric stream 

 doubly observed on the night of the 20th of April last, was, within very few 

 miles, about thirty miles per second. The theoretical velocity of the same 

 meteors (see the Note on the last page of this Eeport) is not quite thirty miles 

 per second. 



4, Several observations of the very brilliant firebaU observed in Devon- 

 shire and in the south-western counties of England on the evening of the 

 13th of February last were collected and compared together by Mr. Wood, 

 the result of whose investigation will shortly be given, with descriptions of 

 that meteor, as the most probable conjecture, from the materials at present 

 at their disposal, arrived at by the Committee respecting its real height and 

 the locality of its nearest approach to the British isles. 



II. Large Meteoes. 

 In addition to the conspicuous meteors described in the accompanying list, 

 the following descriptions of remarkable meteors have appeared, or were 

 communicated to the Committee by the observers : — 



1. 1870, Nov. 1, 11^ 30"" P.M., London. "I saw a splendid meteor last 

 night, at 1 1*" 30", through the blind of my bedroom windoiu. The whole room 

 was illuminated, and the meteor must have been at least half as large as the 

 moon. I went to the window quickly, but could see no trail. The path 

 must have been, say, 5° to the right of a Aurigae, ending 10° to left of a, /3 

 Geminorum. I only saw the end. 



" T. Ceumplen, London, N.W., Nov. 2nd, 1870." 



2. 1870, Nov. 4, shortly before S*" a.m. (local time), Agra, India :— 

 Extraordinary Meteor. — " The following account of an extraordinary me- 

 teor occurs in a letter I received from a brother who is a missionary stationed in 

 Agra. He does not give the exact place where he was at the time, but it 

 must have been very near to Agra. The letter is dated Agra, 24th November, 

 1870. A missionary from Allahabad was with him when he saw it. 



" MUls Hill, Chadderston, near Manchester. Robert Getson. 



" Agra, Nov. 24, 1870. — I recently saw a marvellous meteor. I was in 

 camp, and had risen for an early march a few minutes before 3 a.m. on 



