OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 91 



" When this meteor appeared, the sun was just setting 10° west of our 

 longitude, and an object only fifteen miles high over Clarion County would 

 be in the sunshine. This meteoric cloud was not less than forty miles high, 

 and must therefore have been illuminated in this way ; as no other instance 

 has come to my notice I was much interested in it, but when I commenced 

 this letter I had no idea of troubling you with so long a story. 



" Tours respectfully, 

 " To A. S. Herschel, Esq." " Benj. V. Mabsh." 



1869, September 8th, 7" p.m. (local time), Germany, France, Switzerland, 

 and Italy. A magnificent fireball was seen in the south-west of Europe, 

 over an extent of fully 20° in latitude and longitude, on the evening of the 

 8th of September. The descriptions of its appearance at Strasbourg, Pisa, 

 Arezzo, and Genoa are contained in the ' Meteorological Bulletin ' of the 

 Urbino Observatory for August 1869 ; and at the Piedmontese stations, and 

 at Milan, where it was seen by Prof. SchiapareUi, at Ancona, Bologna, 

 Civita Vecchia, and numerous other places in Italy, in the ' Meteorological 

 Bulletins ' of the Moncalieri, and Eoyal CoUege of Kome Observatories for 

 September, 1869. According to Mr. C. A. Kesselmeyer the meteor approached 

 the southern part of Europe from Prussia, and after crossing the Ehenish 

 provinces between Bohemia, Bavaria, and France, it crossed the Alps of 

 Switzerland and Savoy, being seen near the Lake of Constance, at Lucerne 

 and Geneva, and thence pursued its course to Italy, where it was seen at 

 Marseilles, Civita Vecchia, and Naples, proceeding from north-east towards 

 south-west across the Mediterranean sea. The numerous observations of its 

 course obtained in different countries of Europe will afibrd ample materials for 

 a very rigorous calculation of its path, not less instructive than the passage 

 of the great meteor over America on the 20th of July, 1860, and may at some 

 future time be expected, like the path of that meteor, to furnish tolerably 

 exact elements of a meteoric orbit round the sun. In the length of its path, 

 the date and hour, and the brilliancy of its appearance it closely resembles 

 the large fireball seen in Italy, Switzerland, and France on the evening of the 

 5th of September 1868 (Report for 1869, p. 272). 



1870, August 6th and 15th, about 10" 6" and 9'' p.m., Scotland and 

 Ireland. A description and drawing of the streaks of these large meteors 

 were received from Mr, T. W. Backhouse ; and others are contained in the 

 'Astronomical Register,' and in 'Nature' of September 1st, 1869. The 

 relative abundance of shooting-stars on the night of the 6th of August, 1870, 

 described in the next Appendix, and the occurrence of similar meteors in 

 America last year on the evenings of the 7th and 24th of August, appear to 

 indicate that each of these large meteors was connected with a periodical 

 shower of shooting-stars in August, differing to some extent in the time of 

 maximum from the annual epoch of the 10th, and of which the position of 

 the radiant-point, perhaps more westerly, has not yet been exactly ascer- 

 tained. 



III. Aerolites. 



Motta dei Conti, Casale, Piedmont, 1868, February 29th, ll" a.h. 

 (Report 1868, p. 390.) 



The stone is exceedingly crystalline, light-coloured, fine-grained, and 

 rough in fracture, having a density 3*43. Possessing these characters 

 in common with the meteorites of Luce, Manerkirchen, Politz, Sanguis, 

 St. Etienne, and several others, M. Meunier designates this species of 



