A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 407 



At Wimhledon, Mr. F. C. Penrose reports : — '•' At about 2'' 30"' a.m. 

 we took our stand at the telescope, 

 without, however, making any particu- 

 lar observations until 3"' 6"" a.m., when 

 a bright short streak was observed, in 

 R. A. 13'^ 12°\ N. Decl. 37°. It was of 

 bluish-silvery colour, and resembled a 

 riband, as shown in the figure; but 

 there were probably many more ' kinks ' 

 in it than here shown. It remained 

 visible in the telescope several minutes, 

 and finally before vanishing, separated 

 into two parts." 



In illustration of the many " kinks" 

 observed with the telescope in the 

 streak of this meteor, Mr. Penrose gives 

 the annexed representation of the ten- 

 dril of a climbing plant, twined towards the right, or towards the left, round 

 a slender stem. Eddies and currents of air along the course of the meteor's 

 flight, of the nature of smoke-rings, 

 propagated obliquely towards the right 

 or left, might very possibly conduce to 

 the twisted and knotted appearance of 

 the streak, most commonly observed 

 with the telescope. 



" About tills time H. observed a small 

 meteor in the telescope passing over the 

 field of view, between 6 and t (the 

 sword stars) of Orion ; and F. soon 

 after saw one pass the field of view near 

 the Prtesepe of Cancer. Neither of them 

 showed any remarkable feature, and 

 they left no train. F. saw that which 

 passed the Sword of Orion with the 

 naked eye. It was one of the average 

 smaller meteors. It appeared in the 

 telescope exactly like a star of the sixth magnitude. 



" At 3'' 25"" 50', we saw in the telescope, at a point about E. A. lo** 20"', 

 N. Decl. 5.5°, the streak of a meteor, narrower and brighter than that before 

 described, but otherwise similar in structure to it, full of kinks and bends, 

 but this being of greater length than the former, there were more of them." 



General accounts of observations of the shower were also received from Mr. 

 W. T. Bedford, Sidmouth ; Mr. H. Player, Totnes, Devonshire ; Mr. E. H. Rodd, 

 Penzance ; Mr. Clarke Richardson, Swansea ; and Mr. G. Iliff, at Sunderland. 



Geograj^liical Limits of the Shoiver. — The brightest portion of the meteoric 

 shower, on the night of the 13th-14th of November 1866, was visible as far 

 eastward as Kishnaghur (lat. 23° 24-' N., long. 83° 37' E.), about sixty miles 

 due north of Calcutta, and as far westwards as a point in the Atlantic 

 Ocean, near the Azores, in lat. 39° 56' N., long. 32° 20' "W., or over a zone 

 of at least 115° 57' of longitude. 



It was observed at Aberdeen, in Scotland (lat. 57° 9' 51" N.), and at the 

 Cape of Good Hope Observatory (lat. 33° 56' 3" S.), or over an extent of 91° 

 in latitude. 



