A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 127 



a resident at Pau to a relative in England, describes the character of the 

 meteor : — 



" Pau, 1864, October 6th. On Saturday, 24th September, the day before 

 I arrived here, M — heard in the house, like many others, a loud report 

 (louder than any cannon). The report was so loud says another, sitting in 

 the English Club, that he thought the windows were smashed in. Another 

 eyewitness here at Pau says he observed a flash of light in a dark cloud, fol- 

 lowed immediately afterwards by a tremendous detonation. The enclosed 

 extract from the newspaper will give you the description of it as experienced 

 at Lembeye, twenty miles distant from this (see Catalogue). The detonation 

 was also heard startlingly loud at Orthez, twenty-four miles from this ; also 

 at Monein, twelve miles from this, and at Mont-de-Marsan. These places 

 are relatively situated thus (see fig.). At Monein they thought the houses 

 were coming down about their ears. I cannot discover that any meteorite 



fell." 



Mont-de-Marsan. 



O 



Orthez. CX. 



Lembeye. 



Monein. Pau. 



(2.) 1864, August 10th, 6 h p.m. Island of Milos (Cyclades). 

 A detonating meteor appeared over Milos and the Cyclades thirteen minutes 

 before sunset, in full sunlight, leaving a cloud of smoke for more than a 

 quarter of an hour. The meteor was seen at Athens, and the streak was 

 visible sixteen minutes. The heights at appearance and disappearance are 

 estimated by Dr. Julius Schmidt at twenty-five and twenty-three English 

 miles respectively, over iEgina and Paros. The direction was from Leo, and 

 the velocity about thirty miles per second. Stones are reported to have 

 fallen upon the island of Polinos, but their meteoric character is not con- 

 firmed. The detonation was heard at Milos, where the train of smoke was 

 visible more than a quarter of an hour. 



(3.) 1865, February 9th, 6 h 50 m p.m. Salem, Carnatic (S. India). 



The following extract of a letter from an English gentleman residing at 

 Bangalore, situated on the high road from Bombay to Madras, was received 

 by Mr. Herschel from a relative in England, to whom the letter was 

 addressed. 



" Bangalore, 1865, February 10th. We have had a splendid meteor. I 

 was walking with H — , and at first I thought it was a blue light. It came 

 perpendicularly down ; at first it was bright blue, then purple, and at last 

 deep red. It lit up all the country with just the same glare that a blue light 

 makes. Everything could be seen most distinctly. At Salem*, I read in a 

 newspaper it was accompanied by a noise equal to 100 cannons. You could 

 see the trace of it for nearly five minutes after. The moon was up, and 



* Salem, in the Carnatic, is eighty miles S.S.E. from Bangalore. 



