399 



by it), with the tail already formed and at first pointing towards 

 the earth, or in rere of its apparent motion. It was moving at 

 the first instant it was visible; passed across overhead appa- 

 rently in an enormous arch, the highest point of which did 

 not seem to the eye to be above a few hundred feet, and dis- 

 appeared by sudden extinction in the south-west, the tail being 

 then vertically above, as on its appearance it was vertically 

 below the, nucleus of light. 



" Its apparent velocity of motion was rather faster than 

 that of a common rocket, and the whole time of visible tra- 

 ject was probably about four or five seconds. At the first 

 moment it was taken to be a rocket by several persons present, 

 but an instant's observation of its intense light and short tail 

 shewed it to be no artificial fire. 



" I fancied 1 heard a faint rushing or hissing sound, and 

 immediately after asked my son, did he hear any noise. He re- 

 plied in the negative, and although the impression was strong 

 on my own mind, 1 fancy that the noise was but imaginary, 

 and the efi'ect of constant association with the noise of a rocket 

 which the meteor so forcibly resembled. 



" The appearance of the meteor itself, of which I present 

 a diagram, was of a body or nucleus of intense bluish white 

 light; the forward portion keenly defined, and having a sort 

 of conoidal or elipsoidal shape, something the form of New- 

 ton's solid of least resistance, while the rereward portion 

 was irregularly radiating or brush-like, and throwing off late- 

 rally flashes of light, at angles up to 50° or 60° from its line of 

 motion. 



" The apparent size of the head was something larger than 

 the disk of Jupiter when nearest to us and seen best by the 

 naked eye, but the light greatly more intense, as much so as 

 that of a powerful galvanic battery, one of which I had just 

 quitted using during the day, and the close similarity to the 

 light from which at once struck both my son and myself. 



" The tail was about twenty apparent diameters of the 

 body in length; it was of a reddish hue, and far less brilliant 



