A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS Or LUMINOUS METEORS. 377 



" Of bright meteors . . , there must have been oue about 2'' 40"' a.m., bet-n-een 

 a XJrsa3 Majoris aud a. Ursse Miuoris ; for immediately thereafter the central 

 l)art of its luminous track was brilliantly conspicuous, like a silver snake in 

 the sky. From minute to minute the luminous line became more corrugated, 

 widening and becoming fainter by degrees; and also diifting, apparently 

 under the action of the north-west wind blowing at the time ; even after a 

 quarter of an hour the train-matter was still visible, but changed to some- 

 thing like the outline of a gigantic pear, and drifted some 30° from its first 

 position." 



At Sunderland, in Durham, Mr. Backhouse obtained a view of the persistent 

 light-streak, and to his report is added a de- 

 scription of another meteor, and drawings of 

 their appearance. 



"At '2^ 21"', a meteor as bright as Jupiter, 

 directed from t, Leonis, left a train, a part of which ,,«!- 



lasted two minutes. At 2'' 22" SO'* it Avas like i® ^ * ^? 



fig. 1. 



" On looking out of the window at 2'* 42™ a.m. 

 I discerned the train of a meteor, the upper part (funis 

 being a patch of light much brighter than the rest. Mifion 9 ql 



" rig. 2 shows it soon after I chscovered it, and fig. 3 at 2" 44"' 40' a m 

 It was visible at 2'' 53". ' ' 



Pig. 2. Yi 



o- 



9 oc Cephei • oC Cephei 



J' 



{ 



" I did not see the meteor, but am told that it was as bright as the moon." 

 A description of the meteor, as seen at ISTewcastle-upon-Tyne by Mr. T. P. 

 Barkas, gives a perfectly similar account of its appearance. The meteor shot 

 past Polaris, and became extinguished in the neighbourhood of /3 Cephei. 



(4) 1866, November 20th, 4" a.m. (local time), Nashville, Tenn. U.S.A. 

 Extract from the New York ' World,' 24th November. 



" Meteovolocjical Phenomenon. — At Nashville, about four o'clock last Tues- 

 day morning [tlie 20th of November 1866], a meteor lighting the whole 

 heavens was seen in the direction of Rome, Ga., moving rapidly south-west. 

 It appeared like a ball of fire as large as the sun. It exploded apparently 

 ten miles off with a tremendous report, like a 40-lb. cannon, that shook the 

 earth and made the windows rattle." 



The " phenomenon," if it actually took place as here described, forms an 

 addition to the list of detonating meteors happening about the 20th of No- 

 vember, already enumerated in previous Reports (British Association Report, 

 1866, p. 125). 



