322 REPORT—1863. 
of its motion, but in a transverse direction conical or pyriform, with a length 
from four to ten times its greatest width. Two trustworthy accounts at Brussels 
and Utrecht give half the diameter of the full moon as the approximate appa- 
rent width of the head, from which M. Heis infers a diameter of 460 yards 
for the nucleus or focus of the light. In the early part of its flight the 
meteor nevertheless resembled an ordinary shooting-star, and only gradually 
attained its greatest splendour. An imposing light was thrown upon the 
landscape in the greater part of the area over which the meteor was visible. 
In comparison with this, the full moonlight appeared to pale into insignificance, 
and in some towns of Belgium the light was even compared with that of day. 
The colour of the meteor, in the zenith of the observers, changed from white 
to deep red, which was also the colour of the pointed tail. At last the meteor 
disappeared suddenly, without breaking into fragments. The tail, however, 
contained parcels of vari-coloured light, which appeared to be detached during 
the flight. At Eerzel the meteor appeared as a small stationary moon or ball 
of light at the centre of a conflagration which exhibited kaleidoscopic colours. 
The ball itself was red. It presented the same appearance through the windows 
of a side aisle in the church of Looz, and its passage across the west window of 
the Cathedral in Miinster afforded means for accurately determining the appa- 
rent course at that place. Many of the local accounts collected by M. Heis 
in a journey of three days, undertaken in May near the line of termination 
of the meteor, are instances of lively terror occasioned by a meteor of the 
largest class. A report was heard in North Brabant like the explosion of a 
distant powder-mill, at which the earth trembled, and houses and windows 
were shaken. The interval elapsed was a minute at Herzogenbosch, and yet 
smaller near Eerzel and Eindhoven, where the meteor was vertical at disap- 
pearance. The reports also resembled those of cannons in irregular succes- 
sion, followed for 20 or 40 seconds by rattling noises, which gradually expired. 
These sounds were heard to a distance of eighty miles north-east from the 
explosion. 
The apparent paths, observed in different quarters of the heavens, show the 
meteor to have advanced from 5° W. of N., altitude 22°. In the case of 
S.W. W. N.W. N. N.E. E. S.E. 
3. Hanover. 32. Maestricht. 
14. Brussels. 37. Eerzel. 
17. Ypers. 40. Helmond. 
27. Leyden. 
meteorites and oblique meteors the points of the horizon towards which they 
appear to move depend upon the geographical positions of the observers, and 
cannot be employed alone. 
At Mister the apparent course was referred to the stars, but three only 
out of forty exact observations were recorded in a similar manner. The » 
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