OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 139 



which lasted some minutes and broke in halves, one halt' gaining on the 

 other, appearing thus when it began to break up in clouds." 



Tho sharply denned character of the white streak is mentioned by an 

 observer on the Dunkirk to Calais railway (sec the accompanying catalogue), 

 who likens it to a straight vertical chalk-mark on the sky ; and at a 

 few places in England where (as in the neighbourhood of Ipswich), after a 

 very wet showery day, the sky had cleared in the evening, the luminous streak 

 which it left was a very notable feature of its unusual appearance. 



The ' Daily News ' gives the following description from the Stoke Hills, 

 near Ipswich, adding, in some introductory lines on the occurrence, that " it 

 must have fallen quite close to Ipswich, for the noise when it burst was 

 plainly distinguishable"; but no other announcements of an audible repoit 

 having attended it, from places nearer to the meteor's real outbreak and 

 nearest approach to the earth, as far as the Committee has been able to as- 

 certain, were elsewhere recorded. 



" It first made its appearance about thirty-two minutes past six, in a S.S.E. 

 direction, about 60° above the horizon, and above and a little to the right of 

 Saturn [altitude 11°]. It descended rapidly, leaving a long tail or train of 

 golden light behind, like a long thin cloud, more or less broken. Just as it 

 was in a line with Saturn, and apparently about a yard [1°] to its left, it 

 opened or burst in the middle like a pod with a crackling noise, showing in 

 the centre a very bright ball of light like the electric light. The light was of 

 greater intensity than that of the moon at the full, quite illuminating a largo 

 room from which it was seen. The luminous train or trail was visible for a 

 quarter of an hour after the meteor burst, at first in the tail-like form with a 

 marked division in the middle, but soon afterwards the two divisions became 

 widely separated, assuming the appearance of two horizontal white clouds." 

 Its appearance at Norwich and at Eramford is also noted in the 'Daily News,' 

 at the latter of which places it passed from W.N.W. to the S.S.E., " leaving 

 a stream of light behind it, and casting a lurid crimson belt of light upon 

 the earth immediately beneath its course." 



At numberless places in England (and on the mainland of the continent) 

 the intensity of its illumination was a singularity of this meteor, which took 

 observers by surprise, lighting up the interior even of large rooms where 

 they were seated, and revealing all objects out of doors with lightning-like 

 distinctness. 



Near Harleston in Norfolk, " a pale light shone through an east window 

 and passed thence about 6 or 7 feet from the floor of the room to a north 

 window, like a flash of lightning." It was mistaken for lightning even at 

 Dymock, near Ross in Hereford ; and in the south-eastern counties of 

 England scarcely any persons within or out of doors had not noticed the 

 peculiar brightness of the flash, which, the day having been sultry, was for 

 the most part attributed to unusually vivid Hghtning. An outhouse was 

 thought, in Kent, to be on fire, and apprehension was not much relieved ou 

 looking up to see that the fire was* in the sky, " as big as a square room, 

 thrown open," instead of on the earth close by. Tho illumination of the 

 clouds, where the sky was covered, like that within doors, where the meteor 

 was not seen, caused many erroneous impressions of its real course and 

 aspect, to which few accurate particulars beyond what the accompanying 

 catalogue contains can here unfortunately, from the dark aud cloudy nature 

 of the evening generally, now be added. 



Mr. H. W. Bele, writing to Mr. Denning, gave a very clear dc- 



