Febrttabt 9, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



The sun had set clear, leaving the lower 



sky streaked with gorgeous tints of green 



and red, while the new moon, three days old, 



gave out a peculiar red light 



♦ of singular brilliancy. Sud- 

 denl}', at three minutes before 

 five o'clock, a loud rushing 

 noise was heard, like that of a 

 large rocket descending from 

 the zenith with immense force 

 and velocity. It was a meteor, 

 of course ; and when within 

 some 10° of the horizon it ex- 

 ploded with great noise and 

 flame, the glowing fragments 

 streaming down into the sea 

 like huge sparks and spraj's of 



And to those who witnessed this strange and 

 unwonted manifestation of the forces of the 

 universe comes the suggestion of possible un- 

 thought-of cause of sometime disasters at sea. 



Fig. 1. — Dh-ectly 

 after explosion. 



fire. 



Then came the most won- 

 derful part of the phenomenon ; 

 for, at the point in the heavens where the meteor 

 burst, there appeared a figure like the shape of 

 an immense distaff, all aglow with a bluish-white 

 light of the most intense brilliancy. It kept that 

 form for perhaps two minutes, when it began to 

 lengthen upwards, and grow wavy and zigzag 

 in outline from the action of the wind, and 

 gradually diminishing in breadth, until it be- 

 came a fine, faint spi- 

 ral line, at its upper 

 end dissolving into the 

 fast-gathering clouds 

 the meteor seemed to 

 have evoked. It so 

 remained, a gorgeous 

 scroU of light, embla- 

 zoning an arc of some- 

 15° or 20° in the heav- 

 ens, and with all its 

 vividness and brillian- 

 C3' of coloring, for ten 

 minutes longer, when 

 it began to fade, and 

 finally disappeared at 

 eleven minutes past 

 five o'clock, apparent 

 time. So grand and 

 startling had been the 

 eflTect produced, that 

 it might have been lik- 

 ened to a thunderbolt 

 and its trail indeliblj^ engraved upon the sky. 

 All on board gathered on deck to look at the 

 wonderful phenomenon, and all said thej' had 

 never seen so marvellous a sight before. Had 

 the meteor struck the ship, it would doubtless 

 have been the last of the Alaska, and no vestige 

 would have been left to teU the tale of her loss. 



Fig. 2. — From 2 to 3 minutes 

 after explosion. 



FiS. 3.— At 5.09 P.M. 



I beg to enclose sketches giving a faint idea 

 of a portion of the phenomena described above. 

 Very respectfull3% j-our obedient servant, 

 Geo. E. BELK>fAP, 

 Captain U. S. JV. , Commanding. 



[On the evening of June 29, 1860, when en- 

 camped at the mouth of the Red River, on the 

 southern shore of Lake Winnipeg, the astro- 

 nomical party, sent that j'car by the Nautical 

 almanac office to observe, July 18, on the 



