OBSKRVATION9 0¥ LUMINOUS METEOKS. 141 



was attracted towards the north by the bright light of this beautiful meteor. 

 At first it was as large as Venus thi-ee times magnified, and of a blue colour. 

 In about a second it passed into the pear-shape, leaving a thin streak behind 

 it. [The appearance of a fireball seen at Wisbech on March 4th, 1872 (see 

 these lleports for 1872, p. 76), "like a drop of molten silver," is here referred 

 to by Mr. Miller as exactly resembling the aspect which this fireball assumed 

 at its greatest brightness.] In another second it diminished to the size of 

 a star of third magnitude and appeared yellow. There was no explosion, 

 but it disappeared about 15° from the horizon."' 



Other ||descriptions at Teignmouth, Wath near Eotherham, Halstead in 

 Essex, Faringdon in Berks, York, Ludlow, Bath, Cambridge, and Manchester 

 agree in describing the luminous appearance of sparks, corruscations, and light 

 flakes accompanying the meteor as confined to a short flaming and flickering 

 tail, sometimes divided, following the head, somewhat redder than the fore- 

 most brightest part, which had an apparent width of i or |, while the whole 

 apparent length of the oval disk of the meteor was fully equal to or some- 

 what surpassed one lunar diameter, and the nucleus collapsed on nearing 

 the horizon without any signs of an explosion. Some portions of the train 

 of sparks appear to have been of more persistency than the rest, as an observer 

 at Sudbury, Sufi'olk, writes : — " The shooting-star itself was very large 

 and bright ; and attached was a long tail, broken at about a third of its length 

 from the end into dashes and dots of bright colours, leaving a white track 

 behind for several seconds after the meteor itself had disappeared." The 

 accounts at other places describe a flame-like tail and sparks following the 

 head, although not a persistent light-streak left iipon the meteor's course. 

 An observer at Duxford, near Cambridge, saw not only the meteor but the 

 sparks also througJi an ordinary white calico window-blind, which was cloiun 

 at the time. 



As regards the meteor's brightness, its light at some points of observation 

 fully equalled and perhaps surpassed the intensity of full moonlight. In a 

 letter to Mr. Glaisher, an observer at St. Ives, Hunts, Mr. J. King "Watts, 

 relates that the meteor " started into view from Ursa Major immediately 

 opposite the moon ; it travelled slowly, was of the most intense bright white 

 light, round, and five or six times the size of any of the planets. The sky 

 was clear and cloudless. "VVe were travelling between the moon and the 

 meteor, and our shadows on the road caused by the moon were of course 

 large and clear, but those caused by the meteor were more clear and more 

 sharply defined." A notice of no less interest and importance (but with which 

 no name and locality were given) appeared in the ' Northumberland Daily 

 Express,' affording good proof of the intensity and duration of the meteor's 

 light. " There was a tree in the passage ; and suddenly I found myself sur- 

 rounded by a wonderfully bright light, and the shadow of the tree was cast 

 on the wall on my left, every leaf and twig more distinctly than in the sun- 

 shine." Believing the light to proceed from a window in the house, and per- 

 ceiving it to come from beyond the house, the observer stepped back a few 

 paces to the corner, and was just in time to see a most brilliant meteor de- 

 scending towards the earth. " It did not burst or explode in any way, but 

 gradually diminished till it became extinct." The glare of the meteor's light 

 on the ground, already strongly lighted up by the moon, attracted Mr. J. AV. 

 Proctor's attention to it when driving north-westwards from Grimstone 

 towards York ; and an observer near Carlisle, driving southwards to that 

 town from Longtown, describes the meteor's appearance thus: — " At 8'' 2.5™ a 

 meteor of most dazzling brightness caught my eye. I saw it first apparently in 



