292 METEOROLOGICAL REPORT, 1866, 



drawn from the earth to a known star in the constellation Leo. 

 By the general law of perspective, this gave them the appear- 

 ance of diverging, in the eastern sky, and of converging, in the 

 western sky, towards a point as much below the western horizon, 

 as the star itself was above the eastern horizon. The general 

 aspect of each meteor was not unlike the flight of a rocket : tha. 

 colours of each varied, but the greater number, when the head of 

 the meteor vanished, as if burnt out, left a coloured train, often 

 appearing of a green tinge (possibly from the contrast with the 

 general red colour of the meteor itself), and extending to a dis- 

 tance of three or four degrees, that is, six or eight times the 

 apparent width of the moon. These trains were proved to be 

 real visible objects, and not the effect left upon the retina of the 

 eye by the moving nucleus, by remaining for eight or ten seconds, 

 and sometimes longer, and also by being plainly discernible by an 

 eye which had not seen the nucleus itself. One of these trains was 

 observed to bend from the ordinary rectilinear form, and to turn 

 itself, like a wreath of smoke, approximately into an elliptical 

 form. 



"Many of these "falling stars" were extremely small, like 

 thin elongated pencils of light ; others had a nucleus fully equal 

 to the disk of the planet Mars, and even more brilliant ; and the 

 effect of these chasing one another through the bright starry sky, 

 shifting and changing their form continually, was such as can 

 never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. To the eye, many 

 of these meteors appeared to be very near the earth, but their 

 actual height was, no doubt, in all instances many miles, per- 

 haps thirty or fifty, or even more, and cannot be accurately 

 ascertained, for to do this it is necessary that the same meteor 

 should be observed simultaneously by two persons, at known 

 distant stations, which is obviously impossible, owing to the 

 difficulty of identification. 



"To an observer who turned himself towards the west, the 

 appearance of the meteors presented a considerably different effect. 

 They all seemed to descend towards the western horizon, and 

 thus to assume the form of a shower of stars, as has been often 

 described. 



