Date. Hour. 
1858. |h m 
Sept. 30) 8 45 p.m./Two meteors near to-|Bright ......... Bright streak left behind,|.............++. 
152 REPORT— 1858. 
Velocity or 
Appearance and Brightness 
Duration. 
Magnitude. and Colour. 
————— | ——_—_— | | 
Train or Sparks. | 
gether. lasting about 1 sec. 
May 4).....2--.s0800 Ignited globe .......--|...-2-.sscsecone .» Fell down into a farm-yard.|........+.se1e-++ 040 
Exploded with a loud 
report ; incandescent 
fragments flew in differ- 
ent directions; one hita 
cow. 
8 45 p.m.|= 2.......00+0+.-+.-+ee+|Brilliant white After meteor had passed,|Instantaneous ... 
streak remained visible 3 
or 4 secs., having a wavy 
| motion, filling up exactly 
the distance between 
| Polaris and 6 Ursz Min. 
blue, then! concave to the horizon; 
sensiblysmallerand| green, and| uniform insize; appear- 
disappeared as aj finally a red| ed to vanish before the 
point. point. Shape] meteor vanished ; colour 
round, no} a whitish red; sparks 
change of] very few, whitish. 
form. 
5| 4 45 p.m.{Round and larger than|Bright white...|Train after disappearance..|Almost 
%; then divided neous. 
into two, one going 
in advance of the 
other. Both disap- 
peared suddenly. 
nishing, when it got 
APPENDIX. 
No. 1.—Extracts from the section on Meteorites, &c., of a work entitled 
“ Popular Physical Astronomy,” by Daniel Vaughan. Cincinnati, U.S., 1858 
(p. 82 et seq.). 
After mentioning some of the well-known instances of large meteorites, the 
author observes that the average of observations shows about one fall annually 
in the extent of territory including the British Isles and France; or in about 
zisth of the earth’s surface. Chladni calculates that about 700 fall annually 
on our planet. Their mean velocity appears to be about equal, or even supe- 
rior to that of the earth in its orbit. [This result seems at variance with that 
assumed by Mr. Bompas: see last Report.] Solid masses moving through 
the air experience or produce a pressure nearly proportional to the square of 
their velocity. This pressure the author calculates, on a mass entering our 
atmosphere with the velocity of a meteorite, would amount to 80 tons to the 
square inch, which would suftice to crush it into fragments, especially if de- 
scending almost vertically; when more oblique, the resistance and the chance 
of rupture will be less. 
This the author considers a sufficient cause to account for the seeming ex- 
plosion and noise. : 
He next adverts to their duminosity. Some attribute this to the condensa- 
tion of the atmosphere by their velocity. But this he considers untenable, 
as in fact the most luminous meteors are those which move obliquely or even 
13) 6 39 p.m./=3). Uniform until/Very brilliant. Train 12 times the length|Nearly 23 second 
the moment of va-| At firstlight of the meteor; slightly, ratherslowerth 
