A CATALOGUE OF OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 91 



(1.) This meteor was of very considerable apparent diameter, of a pale 

 yellow colour; on exploding, the sparks assumed a bright crimson hue; it was 

 remarkable for its very slow motion. 



(2.) This meteor, when first observed, was little more than 2nd magnitude, 

 but rapidly increasing in apparent diameter : it presented at its disappearance 

 a well-defined disk. Its colour was a brilliant emerald green and the body 

 of light such as to illuminate with the same tinge 30° or 40° of the adjacent 

 sky. There were no sparks, and it was very similar to one or two I have seen 

 before, and which I cannot better describe than as resembling a body of 

 light enclosed in a filmy envelope. 



APPENDIX. 



No. 1. — Letter from Mr. Hood to the Royal Society, communicated by 

 Professor Stokes, Sec. R.S. 



Pt. de Galle, Ceylon, January 15, 1859. 



Sir, — I beg to send you the accompanying description of a phenomenon 

 observed on board the Steam-ship Emeu : as a similar one had never been 

 noticed by any of the ship's officers or passengers, amongst whom were two 

 captains of Her Majesty's Navy, it seems worthy of record. — I remain, Sir, 

 your obedient servant, J. H. Hood, Member of Council, Sydney, N.S.W. 



On the 5th December 1859, lat. N. 13° 20', Long. E. 50°, a very bril- 

 liant meteor was observed, a few minutes after sunset, in the west, falling 

 perpendicularly from an apparent altitude of 30°. In a few seconds there 

 appeared, in the place where the meteor was first visible, a bright white 



cloud, in shape ^ , perpendicular to the horizon, and crossing 



the light transparent ruddy stratus-clouds ; gradually it ascended slightly, and 

 became horizontal, remaining nearly unchanged (but slowly moving on with 

 the light breeze) for about fifteen minutes, when it gradually disappeared 

 in the haze of the evening. Its appearance was very remarkable, in shape 



thus 



and of a bright clear white colour, against the 



golden-coloured evening sky. The evening was very calm and remarkably 

 cool, falling stars unusually numerous. Bar. 29'30. Ther. 76°. 



No. 2. — Analysis of a paper by Dr. J. H. Gladstone, Ph.D., F.R.S., in the 



* Observed at Thornton Vicarage, near Leicester. 



