A CATALOGUK 01' OBSEKVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 273 



only. Our author now has sufficient data to calculate the orhit of its helio- 

 centric motion, and finds its elements as follow : Longitude of ascending- 

 node 3-J3° :^S' ; ohhquity to ecliptic G8° ; angle of transverse axis with lino 

 of nodes, 87° 32'; eccentricity 2-59; semiaxis mtijor, in parts of mean ter- 

 restrial radius taken as unity, 0-20 ; period of perihelion passage, 1868, 

 Sept. 25th, 19 hours ; A'elocity at perihelion 100 kilometres per second. Mo- 

 tion retrograde. The meteor merely passed through our solar system ; twenty 

 days after it made its appearance it passed through its perihelion, the dis- 

 tance of which from the sun is ahout the same as that of Mercurj-. The 

 bolis is now further away than Saturn, hut has not yet got beyond 

 Uranus." 



From a comparison together of some of the principal descriptions of the 

 detonating meteor of the 7th of October, 1808, Mr. W. 11. Wood considers that 

 its point of first appearance was between 80 and 100 miles above Avranches, 

 in the north of France, and tliat it descended in about five seconds, Avith a 

 luminous course of about ISO miles, to a height of not more than eight miles 

 above the English Channel, twenty miles from Hastings, in the direction of 

 Dieppe. The detonation distinctly heard at Paris would, in this case, arise 

 from an earlier portion of the meteor's flight. In relation to the height and 

 other particulars of tins meteor, the following remarks of the Abbe Lecot, of 

 Noyon (Les Mondcs, vol. xviii. p. 333), proceeding upon the basis of good 

 observations, deserve attention. 



" The principal remai'kable feature of the fireball of the 7th of October, 

 18G8, was its vast volume, much larger than that of any other meteor seen 

 for many yeai-s. Two other circumstances appeared also to be of some im- 

 portant interest ; viz. 1st, the immense distance to which the series of deto- 

 nations was heard over an area of more than eighty leagues (190 miles) in 

 width, incompai-abl}' surpassing the distance to which the loudest claps of 

 thunder, or the discharges of the largest cannons can be heard. If, more- 

 over, the statements of the majority of the observers may be trusted, the in- 

 terval between the bursting of the meteor and the sound of the report was so 

 great that the phenomenon mnst have taken place at a prodigious height. 

 Less than five minutes cannot be allowed, on the most moderate estimation, 

 from the explosion of the meteor to the arrival of the first sound of the 

 report; and this would imply a distance of more than twenty-five leagues 

 (sixty miles). Taking into account the direction of the meteor as seen by 

 the observers, it would be difficult to admit a height of less than twenty 

 leagues (forty-eight miles). This height is confidently within the limits 

 which it would be necessary to assign to it when the greater number of exact 

 descriptions of the meteor given by competent observers are taken into 

 the account. 



" The second peculiarity which appears hitherto to have been overlooked 

 is that the meteor was not solitarj', but appears to have been connected with 

 a long list of similar appearances, which have been more numerous than 

 ordinary at this season of the year. Last night (October 19th), on two 

 occasions, about 8 and 10 p.m., I saw each time, in less than two minutes, 

 five bolides of considerable brightness, leaving behind them a persistent streak, 

 and moving from south-east to north-west. Their apparent brightness was 

 about that of the planet Jupiter. On eveiy previous evening since the 8th 

 of October, when the sky was clear, I have been astonished at the number of 

 shooting-stars that have presented themselves, generally without my paying 

 any particidar attention to record their appearance." 



By extending backwards some of the given apparent paths, Mr. Wood 



